Norman Mailer: You’ll see donkeys screwing each other, men fighting, a horse nosing out a soldier’s food he shouldn’t be eating in an encampment.
Elizabeth Wurtzel: You have to constantly say, “This isn’t happening to me.”
Mailer: Also, the whole idea was not to be excited.
Wurtzel: Everyone should be. Which is how it always is.
Mailer: The thick canvas mainsail lopes over.
•••
Wurtzel: I’m wondering about the demise of civilization as a result of that, even though I think it should be legalized because of course it should be.
Mailer: But there were all these well-known painters, and that gave a certain tone to the town, plus an interesting tension.
Wurtzel: That’s what all these people think.
•••
Mailer: Your brain is faster when you smoke cigarettes, which is why working intellectuals, particularly, do hate giving up their addiction.
Wurtzel: It’s a sign that you didn’t understand what you were getting yourself into. I had fifteen cigarettes left in my pack and I didn’t finish them.
•••
Mailer: Everything I detest has gotten stronger in the last 30 or 40 years: plastic, airplane interiors, modern architecture, and suburban sprawl.
Wurtzel: I think it’s terrifying. I don’t think it’s supposed to be that way, though.
Mailer: I think there just wasn’t money for a babysitter. Or, the best friend, the babysitter, was going to the party also.
Wurtzel: Right. And no one complains about Norman Mailer being difficult.
Mailer: If you keep telling me how good I am, frankly, I get bored.