While the moral force of Judeo-Christian tradition and the law have sought to purify the penis, and to restrict its seed to the sanctified institution of matrimony, the penis is not by nature a monogamous organ. It knows no moral code. It was designed by nature for waste, it craves variety, and nothing less than castration will eliminate the allure of prostitution, fornication adultery, or pornography.

The assistant coach had the duty of calling in the chronicle of each game to the local newspaper and when he complained he was too busy to take care of it the head coach turned to Talese to take over the duties. "
In 1964 Talese publiGay Talesed The Bridge: The Building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (1964) a reporter-style non-fiction depiction of the construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. As Carol Polsgrove points out in her history of Esquire in the Sixties it was the kind of reporting he liked to do best: "just being there observing waiting for the climactic moment when the mask would drop and true character would reveal itself.

As a writer for The New York Times and Esquire magazine in the 1960s he helped to define literary journalism. Talese is a visiting writer at the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California each spring.