"Sometimes you can do it, and sometimes it's not there," continued Plimpton, leaning back in the desk chair at his Eastside apartment. "It's very hard to work alone. There's the television set, and all these books, and your son and daughter in the next room. Sometimes I have to get away. So I go to bars and I sit in a corner and write. You're trapped in there. There's nothing else to do but write." As we sat talking, the telephone rang frequently, and Plimpton, apologizing for the interruption, spoke to the callers with widely varying degrees of enthusiasm, but was consistently polite, urbane and witty. I noticed a hint of an English accent in his voice -- the result of his early education at St. Bernard's School on the Upper East Side, followed much later by four years of study in England. It is easy to imagine him stepping into a boxing ring like an English gentleman, calmly lacing on his gloves for a friendly bout. Which is precisely what he did in 1959 when, for the purpose of one of his countless stories for _Sports Illustrated_, he took on Archie Moore, then king of the light heavyweight division, for a three-round exhibition match in New York. Since that time, Plimpton has never lost his interest in boxing. A close friend of Muhammad Ali's who has followed the champion around the world, he made Ali the chief character of his book _Shadow Box_, which came out in paperback this month from Berkley. As with most of Plimpton's works, the story is told with an abundance of humor. Currently at work on three new books, Plimpton emphasized that he writes on many subjects outside of sports. A lifelong friend of the Kennedy family, he has co-authored an oral history volume titled _American Journey: The Times of Robert F. Kennedy_. He is an associate editor of _Harper's_ magazine and a regular contributor to the _International Food & Wine Review_. His first love, in fact, seems to be not sports at all, but the _Paris Review_, a magazine for up-and-coming serious writers that he has edited since its creation in 1953. One of the most important literary magazines in the English-speaking world, the _Paris Review_ is published four times a year as a 175-page journal devoted almost exclusively to fiction and poetry. His hair is mostly silver now, and there are creases starting to appear on his ruggedly handsome face, but Plimpton, at 52, is still the same larger than-life, charismatic figure he has been since he came to national attention in 1961 with the publication of _Out of My League_, a book about his foray into major league baseball. _Paper Lion_ (1966), which told of his brief career as a quarterback with the Detroit Lions, cemented his reputation as the nation's most realistic sportswriter. His other books include _The Bogey Man_, _One More July_, and _Mad Ducks and Bears_. As a lecturer, he is in demand all over the country. He and his wife Freddy have been married for 11 years.