SOURCE: Heller, Joseph, and Charlie Reilly. “An Interview with Joseph Heller.” Contemporary Literature 39, no. 4 (winter 1998): 507-22.

In the following interview, which took place on October 24, 1996, Heller discusses his themes, influences, and techniques for writing his novels.

Despite the fact that he has also composed two memoirs (No Laughing Matter [1986] and Now and Then [1998]) and a drama (We Bombed in New Haven [1967]), Joseph Heller's reputation rests, in general, upon his six novels, and in particular upon the first of those six, Catch-22 (1961). Although Catch-22 remains his most celebrated work, each of Heller's novels was written and has been received as a work of literary fiction, and each has been praised in that special context. His rich humor, high satire, and relentless experimentation have earned him professorships (at Oxford, Yale, and Penn, to name a few), honors, and literally millions of readers during his four and one-half decades of writing...