Q: That's a mistake, to send an agent a pamphlet with a picture of the twin towers on the front and President Bush on the back.
A: Why?
Q: They'll think you are a conspiracy theorist.
A: To conspire means to breathe the same air.
They
don't have to conspire. They all see things alike.
Q: You are a conspiracy theorist.
A: I saw Harvey Pekar on the TV. On a panel about graphic novels. He's done a nonfiction adaptation of Studs Terkel's Working.
Q: And?
A: Paul Buhle was also on the panel.
He talked about how art forms
get corporatized, and instead of being creative, you have people inking, people drawing,
people writing the stories. It gets industrialized, and you just have a job you go
to, and do one part of it.
Q: Well, yes.
You have the underground and you have the mainstream.
The underground has its advantages.
Which you give up, to go mainstream.
Little Richard said, "He got what he wanted but he lost what he had."
A: That's a plot.
Q: Or a guy keeping what he has is a plot. Refusing to give up what he has.
A: Yes. He is the cause of his own lack of progress. Lack of advancement.
The people who could advance him sense he is hostile to them, and will make fun of
them, and embarrass them.
Q: He's not alienated.
A: No. He is engaged. He has self-actualization. He realizes his full potential.
He doesn't need validation by external sources.
He doesn't even need to make
a living. To be compensated.
Will write for food. Will write for free. Will
pay to write.
Q: That's what it takes.
A: That's not enough.
What if it's not enough?
Q: Tough shit.
A: That's right.