Gay Talese is not an easy man to interview. The legendary writer didn’t elude me the way Frank Sinatra eluded him in 1966, which resulted in one of the most celebrated articles ever to appear in Esquire (“Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”), but he was a challenge in other ways.

As it turned out, I think I ultimately learned more from the difficulties of writing about Talese than I would have learned had he been completely cooperative and forthcoming.

A few hours after I had faxed Talese requesting an interview, I received a phone call from the 74-year-old writer, who has been out of the limelight for 14 years. Within the first few minutes of our conversation, he listed all the reasons he would not be able to do an interview: He was working on the introduction for a New York Times photography book, his publishers at Knopf were scheduling events to promote his new book, “A Writer’s Life” and he was preparing to leave in April to teach a writing class at the University of Southern California. “I’m not just sitting around, you know,” he said.

After proving that he had no time for me, he asked how much of his time I needed. I replied that I was hoping to conduct two or three interviews and maybe shadow him for an afternoon. “Shadow me?” he snapped. “I don’t want you to shadow me. I have things to do.”

The beginning of a fascinating interview with Gay Talese. (Via Mediabistro.)