Norman Mailer: Works and Days

The Writer and Hollywood: Norman Mailer

Mailer's answers to two editors' questions on Hollywood and the writer; he answers "no" to both whether Hollywood has treated his work justly and whether the serious writer's work can survive Hollywood.

Mailer answers two editors’ questions — “(1) Has Hollywood treated your work justly? (2) Can the serious writer’s work survive in Hollywood?” — with 125 words apiece, answering “no” to each. To the second he adds that complaining about the results after an author has sold work for money is “belly-aching” and “smacks too much of sniffing the armpit and wrestler’s moans.

First published: 1966
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 66.13
Cite as: /works/1966-writer-and-hollywood
Last updated: 2026-05-30