Norman Mailer: Works and Days

A Certain Grim Pleasure: Norman Mailer Speaks with James Toback about Film

A wide-ranging conversation with the filmmaker James Toback on film and the horrors of modern life, in which Mailer explains how his writing process has changed: 'I used to pride myself on the white heat of my first drafts… now it's not like that.'

A wide-ranging conversation with the filmmaker James Toback, Mailer’s longtime friend, on film and the horrors of modern life. Mailer also explains how his writing process has changed with age: “I used to pride myself on the white heat of my first drafts… now it’s not like that. My first drafts are much below the final product.”

First published: 2004-12
Form: interview
Lennon & Lennon: 04.16
Cite as: /works/2004-12-certain-grim-pleasure
Last updated: 2026-06-08