Fighting for the perfect quotes

Ingemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson and becomes boxing heavyweight champion of the world.

Ingemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson and becomes boxing heavyweight champion of the world.

Alex Belth interviews Gay Talese about his 1964 Esquire profile of boxer Floyd Patterson, including how the writer worked with the fighter to make his quotes perfect: "I said, 'Floyd, what’s it like being knocked out?' Then he started talking and I said, 'Wait a minute, you can do better than this. Tell me again.' And we’d go deeper, deeper, deeper. The quotations that [are in the story] are not what I first got — they are what I got after I badgered the guy."

February 7, 2016

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