Art & Creativity Quote by George Plimpton

A throwaway line that quietly tells you almost everything about how George Plimpton wants you to read the book: as a curated social experience, not a sealed literary object. Plimpton doesn’t say the best argument, the sharpest prose, the most revealing scene. He says “favorite monologue,” a phrase that treats the page like a stage and the reader like an audience member leaning toward the good part. That’s Plimpton’s signature move as a journalist-editor of a certain New York milieu: taste as authority.

The specificity of “Kate Harrington’s story of her relationship with Truman” does double duty. On the surface, it’s a recommendation. Underneath, it’s an index of access. You’re not just getting “Truman” as a distant genius; you’re getting him refracted through an intimate witness, a relationship that promises gossip, vulnerability, and contradiction. Plimpton is signaling that personality is the real subject matter here, and that the book’s value lies in its voices - the “monologues” - more than in any single, official narrative.

Context matters: Plimpton came out of the Paris Review orbit, where celebrity, literary prestige, and conversational revelation were often braided together. His intent is less to canonize than to seduce: come for Truman’s aura, stay for the human complications. Even the casualness of “Truman” (no last name) is a wink to the reader - an invitation into a room where first names are a kind of currency.