1
00:00:23,682 --> 00:00:27,982
The media demand that every
season there is a new genius.

2
00:00:31,065 --> 00:00:36,065
You will be very happy if during
witness the work of a genius.

3
00:00:38,030 --> 00:00:42,230
But there aren't many people who are great.
In its approach... brilliant in its entirety.

4
00:00:42,785 --> 00:00:44,585
Picasso was like that.

5
00:00:47,998 --> 00:00:53,498
It was widely reported that the man had,
the media consistently called it,

6
00:00:53,587 --> 00:00:57,587
I'm not sure about the amount, but
'The $120 million Picasso.'

7
00:00:58,467 --> 00:01:04,967
He showed it to his friends
and elbowed and punched the canvas.

8
00:01:06,642 --> 00:01:09,192
That amused me a lot
for several reasons.

9
00:01:09,228 --> 00:01:12,314
The first is what when I asked
'Which Picasso painting?'

10
00:01:12,606 --> 00:01:15,356
They just answered me
'The $120 million Picasso.'

11
00:01:15,359 --> 00:01:19,159
I kept repeating 'But which picture?'
'The one worth 120 million.'

12
00:01:19,238 --> 00:01:24,238
And that's changing too.
The price changes, but the picture does not.

13
00:01:24,994 --> 00:01:30,494
But what really intrigued me
is that this man does not see.

14
00:01:30,624 --> 00:01:37,624
I don't think there is a more suitable i
a stronger symbol of our time

15
00:01:37,715 --> 00:01:41,215
from a blind art collector.

16
00:01:42,303 --> 00:01:46,515
I think that sums it up.
To write the history of art today,

17
00:01:46,724 --> 00:01:51,224
You should call it 'Blind
art collector and other stories.'

18
00:01:55,316 --> 00:01:58,816
'Public Speaking'

19
00:02:15,711 --> 00:02:18,711
- Is that a plot?
- Yes, that's the plot.

20
00:02:19,632 --> 00:02:23,432
We were looking for your booth, but
we are not sure if it is this or that.

21
00:02:23,552 --> 00:02:25,352
Is this your booth?

22
00:02:26,764 --> 00:02:30,764
- It will be difficult to reach the lobby from the audience.
- Yeah, ok.

23
00:02:33,395 --> 00:02:38,595
7:35. We were supposed to start at 7:30.
If I was in the audience, I would already be bothered.

24
00:02:38,817 --> 00:02:41,217
Are you happy about...
optimistic works...

25
00:02:41,278 --> 00:02:45,328
Do I give the impression of like
happy or optimistic?

26
00:02:45,366 --> 00:02:47,966
This is as bright as I can be.

27
00:02:48,369 --> 00:02:49,870
Writers need to know things.

28
00:02:50,913 --> 00:02:54,413
They need to know things about
life, but musicians don't.

29
00:02:54,500 --> 00:02:57,400
That's why there are musical ones
geniuses... like Mozart.

30
00:02:57,419 --> 00:02:59,419
There is no equivalent
Mozart among writers.

31
00:02:59,421 --> 00:03:03,421
Even if you have such a natural one
talent, he would have to know something

32
00:03:03,551 --> 00:03:05,051
so you can write it down.

33
00:03:05,803 --> 00:03:10,353
In the areas where it should
know something, there are no child geniuses.

34
00:03:10,391 --> 00:03:16,891
Well, we have child actors.
A field where knowledge does not serve you.

35
00:03:17,982 --> 00:03:21,382
You learn more about writing with age.
Some people don't.

36
00:03:21,402 --> 00:03:25,402
Some are fully developed
in the first book, eg Philip Roth.

37
00:03:26,365 --> 00:03:32,065
They immediately have a voice. Some people do
specialize in young audiences.

38
00:03:32,580 --> 00:03:35,430
And then, of course, they get worse.

39
00:03:35,457 --> 00:03:38,957
If you specialize in
young people, you will be worse and worse.

40
00:03:39,461 --> 00:03:43,961
I love doing this, because it is
what I wanted all my life:

41
00:03:45,342 --> 00:03:47,942
For people to ask my opinion.

42
00:03:48,512 --> 00:03:53,012
And in such a situation, people don't
they are allowed to mix. It's not a conversation.

43
00:03:54,476 --> 00:03:56,476
That's what I like about it

44
00:03:57,396 --> 00:04:02,096
I think you are
almost always right.

45
00:04:05,154 --> 00:04:07,154
What do you mean 'it seems to you?'

46
00:04:08,407 --> 00:04:10,907
But also...

47
00:04:10,931 --> 00:04:12,931
never fair.

48
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:14,950
That's the reason.

49
00:04:14,955 --> 00:04:16,624
I'm always right
because I'm never fair.

50
00:04:17,124 --> 00:04:20,919
I didn't think about it,
but I must admit that they

51
00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:25,920
too often for comfort,
asked if I was an only child.

52
00:04:26,508 --> 00:04:31,508
Apparently people think I have character
individual. Probably so.

53
00:04:38,270 --> 00:04:40,770
As a child I wanted to be a cellist.

54
00:04:40,773 --> 00:04:43,373
I loved Pablo Casales,
I had his records.

55
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,100
But I was supremely untalented.

56
00:04:46,111 --> 00:04:49,210
And when I realized that I won't
reach the level of Casales,

57
00:04:49,235 --> 00:04:52,010
approximately after 4 min.
listening to his record,

58
00:04:52,011 --> 00:04:55,011
I realized that
I don't want to be a cellist.

59
00:04:57,289 --> 00:04:59,509
I had excessive standards.

60
00:04:59,917 --> 00:05:02,002
But I was the worst
cellist in the school orchestra.

61
00:05:02,127 --> 00:05:05,227
Not only did I not reach
Casales level,

62
00:05:05,422 --> 00:05:08,221
in the small public orchestra
school, with five cellists,

63
00:05:08,222 --> 00:05:10,722
I was the fifth cellist.

64
00:05:10,844 --> 00:05:14,644
And that's a fair assessment.

65
00:05:15,266 --> 00:05:18,666
In my neighborhood and beyond,
girls do certain physical things.

66
00:05:18,686 --> 00:05:22,648
Like climbing trees etc.
I was always afraid of such things.

67
00:05:23,023 --> 00:05:26,235
Terrified. And I think I am
at that time thought:

68
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:31,199
'If I say something funny, they won't
notice that I'm only on the first branch.'

69
00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:34,999
About fifty,
which I don't even intend to go to.

70
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,950
Even in childhood
it seemed idiotic to me

71
00:05:37,955 --> 00:05:42,205
endanger yourself without any
reasons... in other words,

72
00:05:42,251 --> 00:05:47,051
Climbing a tree makes sense
eg if the Nazis are chasing you.

73
00:05:47,172 --> 00:05:52,172
OK? Being in a tree is wise
procedure if there are Nazis down there.

74
00:05:52,177 --> 00:05:57,677
If I climb only for other children
they see that, even at that age - no!

75
00:06:20,915 --> 00:06:24,615
I was 9 or so,
when I learned to look at the clock.

76
00:06:24,627 --> 00:06:27,627
The main disaster of my childhood.

77
00:06:27,922 --> 00:06:32,009
My parents sent me to
aunts and uncles on winter holidays,

78
00:06:33,177 --> 00:06:41,101
and the idea was that since he
uncle engineer, learn to read the clock.

79
00:06:41,477 --> 00:06:45,977
I guess the idea was like
'this girl is so challenging'

80
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,300
to learn to read the clock,

81
00:06:48,317 --> 00:06:53,317
the expertise of a graduate is required
from MIT who worked as an engineer at IBM.

82
00:06:53,405 --> 00:06:56,605
They thought I needed it
someone of that level to teach me.

83
00:06:56,617 --> 00:07:01,288
Nothing new that I haven't seen
at home: everything was a clock.

84
00:07:01,789 --> 00:07:03,789
In other words...

85
00:07:04,208 --> 00:07:08,045
Here are the cookies. If it's this one
raisin 12, and this raisin 3

86
00:07:08,254 --> 00:07:09,754
And I...

87
00:07:10,631 --> 00:07:13,731
In the end I jumped,
but not all the way.

88
00:07:13,884 --> 00:07:17,513
And to this day,
that is all life

89
00:07:18,055 --> 00:07:20,805
I see that people
when asked what time it is,

90
00:07:20,849 --> 00:07:23,149
they glance and answer quickly.

91
00:07:24,019 --> 00:07:26,519
I'm jealous of them
because I have to...

92
00:07:27,106 --> 00:07:29,106
Then I answer, okay?

93
00:07:29,108 --> 00:07:34,947
It's unattractive when I look at how much it is
hours, because you can see that I am concentrating.

94
00:07:35,573 --> 00:07:39,577
The equivalent of scrolling
lips while reading.

95
00:07:40,035 --> 00:07:45,416
And then at one point,
In the 70s, they invented the digital clock.

96
00:07:46,250 --> 00:07:50,546
I was against them
out of pure envy.

97
00:07:51,130 --> 00:07:54,842
'If there was one when I was a child,
I would know what time it is.'

98
00:07:55,259 --> 00:07:58,304
Since I didn't have it,
I don't like it!

99
00:07:58,500 --> 00:08:00,744
The same kind of reaction
is a generation

100
00:08:00,769 --> 00:08:03,550
my parents had
at the time of the sexual revolution.

101
00:08:03,559 --> 00:08:07,859
'Well, he can't!
If we couldn't, you won't either!'

102
00:08:07,938 --> 00:08:11,038
That's what I felt towards
digital watches.

103
00:08:11,066 --> 00:08:15,066
I was a terrible student in high school.
The worst possible.

104
00:08:15,154 --> 00:08:17,854
I got kicked out of school.

105
00:08:17,865 --> 00:08:20,265
It can't get any worse than that.

106
00:08:21,452 --> 00:08:24,152
- Did you read?
- Constantly.

107
00:08:24,205 --> 00:08:26,805
That's one of the reasons
why I was kicked out.

108
00:08:27,041 --> 00:08:31,962
I hid the books behind the textbooks
and for that I am constantly punished.

109
00:08:32,087 --> 00:08:36,087
- What did you read?
- Anything. Just not doing my homework.

110
00:08:36,100 --> 00:08:39,850
Mom would knock on the door:
'I know you read!'

111
00:08:39,887 --> 00:08:43,547
My desk
it had a drawer in the middle

112
00:08:43,550 --> 00:08:47,210
in which I would put the book
which would you like to read

113
00:08:47,220 --> 00:08:49,870
and it was on the table
math book.

114
00:08:49,897 --> 00:08:53,097
And when mother came in,
this is how I would close it.

115
00:08:53,651 --> 00:08:56,051
No erotic stories or anything like that,

116
00:08:56,111 --> 00:09:01,111
but books that are not a part
curriculum.

117
00:09:22,179 --> 00:09:26,679
There are days, and this is one of them,
when you wonder

118
00:09:28,686 --> 00:09:32,686
What is your role in this country
and what is your future in it?

119
00:09:32,690 --> 00:09:37,653
How to reconcile
with your situation here?

120
00:09:38,487 --> 00:09:43,117
And how to convey to the white majority,

121
00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:49,206
powerful, irresponsible,
thoughtless and cruel,

122
00:09:50,332 --> 00:09:51,932
that you are here?

123
00:09:52,877 --> 00:09:56,470
I remember the first time
saw James Baldwin.

124
00:09:56,495 --> 00:09:59,027
As a child,
on David Susskind's show

125
00:09:59,049 --> 00:10:02,769
I've never heard anyone talk like that.
So I say that I am the only Jew in

126
00:10:02,794 --> 00:10:06,699
To an America where intellectuality comes first
to which she was exposed was black.

127
00:10:06,724 --> 00:10:10,124
I didn't know there were Jewish ones
intellectuals. I didn't grow up among them.

128
00:10:10,185 --> 00:10:12,635
The intellectual for me was Baldwin.

129
00:10:12,646 --> 00:10:16,646
I was completely enchanted by him.

130
00:10:16,734 --> 00:10:18,834
I like to talk, obviously.

131
00:10:19,153 --> 00:10:24,533
I didn't think about how it is
be good or bad at it.

132
00:10:25,117 --> 00:10:28,917
Only when people started it
to comment, I realized that

133
00:10:28,954 --> 00:10:33,154
they see it as something special.

134
00:10:33,167 --> 00:10:37,617
And that's partly because me
as a child they were not praised.

135
00:10:37,630 --> 00:10:43,630
On the contrary - there is a lot in childhood
story was rudeness, 'answering.'

136
00:10:43,650 --> 00:10:46,250
Now it's called 'Public Speaking.'

137
00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:51,430
But it's actually the same thing.
What I'm being punished for

138
00:10:51,435 --> 00:10:54,635
at home and at school,
got low grades,

139
00:10:54,688 --> 00:11:00,277
started at one point in life
are paying me, rewarding me for it.

140
00:11:00,527 --> 00:11:02,327
But it's exactly the same thing

141
00:11:02,446 --> 00:11:06,796
<i>Do you think there is a difference between
female and male voice in literature?</i>

142
00:11:06,825 --> 00:11:10,825
Even on the phone there is a difference
between female and male voice.

143
00:11:11,705 --> 00:11:17,086
I think it's very important
that writers write in the right voice.

144
00:11:17,253 --> 00:11:21,053
In my own voice.
But only if they are good writers.

145
00:11:21,060 --> 00:11:25,060
And I noticed, for sure
even one of you ten year olds,

146
00:11:25,070 --> 00:11:27,570
that too many people write books.

147
00:11:27,846 --> 00:11:33,846
There are too many books, they are terrible, and the cause
that is encouraging self-confidence.

148
00:11:37,940 --> 00:11:42,290
Looks like you have so much
confidence to think

149
00:11:42,300 --> 00:11:48,300
'Why should I keep those thoughts to myself?
I will share them with the world!'

150
00:11:48,868 --> 00:11:51,368
When I came to New York,

151
00:11:51,370 --> 00:11:55,120
I found myself among
fantastic speakers.

152
00:11:55,130 --> 00:11:59,530
I thought we would
to be like that all my life.

153
00:11:59,545 --> 00:12:04,045
Things happen to you
that you dreamed of in your youth,

154
00:12:04,050 --> 00:12:07,950
and later you realize that it is
was completely accidental.

155
00:12:07,970 --> 00:12:11,569
I immediately connected with
amazing speakers.

156
00:12:11,570 --> 00:12:14,170
They were all men,
homosexuals.

157
00:12:14,226 --> 00:12:17,376
Much older than me,
at least ten years.

158
00:12:17,396 --> 00:12:20,649
I was 18 when
I came to New York alone.

159
00:12:21,191 --> 00:12:25,029
There was no competition.
but it was wicked.

160
00:12:25,196 --> 00:12:27,406
After I met them,

161
00:12:27,410 --> 00:12:32,710
and these were literally the first people
whom I met after getting off the bus,

162
00:12:32,715 --> 00:12:35,715
after that me
nothing surprises.

163
00:12:42,289 --> 00:12:45,289
<i>'I saw New York, USA...</i>

164
00:12:45,382 --> 00:12:50,382
<i>I have never seen such a height...</i>

165
00:12:50,804 --> 00:12:54,350
<i>as in New York, USA.'</i>

166
00:12:55,976 --> 00:12:58,020
When I came to New York,

167
00:12:58,270 --> 00:13:03,020
I drove a taxi and the like, but always
just enough to pay the rent.

168
00:13:03,067 --> 00:13:07,267
I would stop working
as soon as I had $121.

169
00:13:07,905 --> 00:13:13,405
I would stop driving, because I am
I wanted to hang out, do whatever I wanted.

170
00:13:13,536 --> 00:13:19,536
In my opinion, for new ideas
or thinking about new things

171
00:13:19,667 --> 00:13:24,467
it is important to be in company
other people, talk.

172
00:13:24,588 --> 00:13:28,088
A sedentary lifestyle
in bars and smoke cigarettes...

173
00:13:28,759 --> 00:13:30,759
it is the history of art.

174
00:13:57,538 --> 00:14:00,838
New York was no better then,
because there was more crime.

175
00:14:00,875 --> 00:14:04,975
It was better because it is
was relatively cheaper.

176
00:14:05,004 --> 00:14:09,804
When the place is too expensive, u
only the rich can live on it.

177
00:14:09,842 --> 00:14:11,842
And that's the problem, OK?

178
00:14:11,844 --> 00:14:14,994
You can hate the rich or
love for many reasons,

179
00:14:15,014 --> 00:14:19,014
but you can't say it's a place
a lot of rich people interesting.

180
00:14:19,059 --> 00:14:20,559
Because it's not.

181
00:14:29,069 --> 00:14:31,769
I think they are
things happened

182
00:14:31,770 --> 00:14:34,470
when they decided to save the city from bankruptcy

183
00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:37,179
turning it into a tourist attraction.

184
00:14:37,180 --> 00:14:41,179
Everyone thinks it's the smartest
move of all time.

185
00:14:41,180 --> 00:14:46,179
In the 70s, a couple of people met and said
'What are we going to do, the city is on the verge of bankruptcy.

186
00:14:46,180 --> 00:14:50,779
Nobody here has a clue,
so we have to bring a lot of people

187
00:14:50,780 --> 00:14:52,780
to look around the city.'

188
00:14:53,093 --> 00:14:56,093
That was the plan, and apparently it worked.

189
00:14:57,014 --> 00:15:00,914
It was a terrible idea!
And at that time I thought so.

190
00:15:00,935 --> 00:15:06,635
I thought, 'This is New York.
We don't need to promote ourselves.

191
00:15:06,732 --> 00:15:10,832
'You don't want to come here?
OK, don't.'

192
00:15:12,363 --> 00:15:14,363
Very bad plan..

193
00:15:14,782 --> 00:15:18,782
One gets the impression that in
the city has no resources.

194
00:15:18,786 --> 00:15:22,986
Human resources, because
New York was not a boring place.

195
00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:27,940
You can't lure the herd
ignorant villagers to the center,

196
00:15:27,962 --> 00:15:31,762
without affecting the city.
Impossible!

197
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:36,340
Sometimes I walk behind them,
I try to bypass them

198
00:15:36,350 --> 00:15:39,350
and I listen to them talk
that they don't like something.

199
00:15:40,015 --> 00:15:43,283
We were in a restaurant
where waiters sing.

200
00:15:43,308 --> 00:15:45,739
It's not good, they sing too loud.'

201
00:15:45,896 --> 00:15:49,896
I feel like saying:
'You didn't like it? Tell us!

202
00:15:49,900 --> 00:15:51,700
Because we invented it for you.

203
00:15:51,735 --> 00:15:56,235
if you don't like it,
we will be happy to close it!'

204
00:15:56,365 --> 00:15:59,965
'What about Times Square
if there are no tourists?

205
00:15:59,994 --> 00:16:02,494
We built it for them!'

206
00:16:02,997 --> 00:16:06,597
It was an ordinary neighborhood,
it was not 'built for them.'

207
00:16:06,625 --> 00:16:11,125
I live near Times Square
and I'll tell you what we need:

208
00:16:11,130 --> 00:16:13,130
Butcher shop.

209
00:16:16,093 --> 00:16:19,693
Shoemaker. Paper mill. Bookstore.

210
00:16:19,700 --> 00:16:21,970
Fill the square with things
that New Yorkers need.

211
00:16:21,974 --> 00:16:25,054
This is how it is in Times Square
last few years:

212
00:16:25,060 --> 00:16:28,510
If one resident of New York
run into another,

213
00:16:28,522 --> 00:16:31,822
as if he ran into someone familiar
in a gay bar in the 70s:

214
00:16:31,830 --> 00:16:36,430
He starts to justify why he is there.

215
00:16:43,704 --> 00:16:49,704
'I'm not here, I'm just passing by,
I'm going somewhere else, exploring.'

216
00:16:49,835 --> 00:16:55,085
The reason people moved to cities i
for which I moved, among other things,

217
00:16:55,090 --> 00:16:59,590
is that you are in a small place
terribly oppressed.

218
00:16:59,637 --> 00:17:03,237
When everyone knows everything about you.

219
00:17:03,599 --> 00:17:07,599
'The Curious Neighbor' is not an urban creation.

220
00:17:09,104 --> 00:17:13,804
He lives in a small town,
where everyone knows everything about everyone.

221
00:17:14,026 --> 00:17:18,106
And that suffocates you. Well, people move
to the city to do what they want.

222
00:17:18,113 --> 00:17:21,713
Even if they just want to walk,
without anyone reporting:

223
00:17:21,742 --> 00:17:23,742
'I saw Jo walking.'

224
00:17:24,161 --> 00:17:28,461
If you wanted to do something else,
you had to live in the city.

225
00:17:30,751 --> 00:17:34,501
Today, anonymity is the worst thing.

226
00:17:34,505 --> 00:17:38,705
Because everyone longs for fame.

227
00:17:39,051 --> 00:17:42,101
<i>Paul Morrissey's film
'Rebellious Women'</i>

228
00:17:42,137 --> 00:17:48,937
In the last 25-30 years, fame is
became a great value in itself.

229
00:17:49,019 --> 00:17:54,019
Unrelated to anything else.
It's Andy Warhol's fault.

230
00:17:54,024 --> 00:17:57,224
Andy celebrated fame.

231
00:17:57,278 --> 00:18:00,978
Because he used it all the time
the word 'glory.' That was a joke.

232
00:18:01,073 --> 00:18:04,773
Proof it was a joke:
Take transvestites,

233
00:18:04,785 --> 00:18:09,785
i.e. criminals, because the law forbade it
that men wear women's clothes,

234
00:18:09,790 --> 00:18:14,290
They wanted to be movie stars.
Specifically, certain movie stars.

235
00:18:14,300 --> 00:18:18,450
Kitty Darling wanted
to be like Marilyn Monroe.

236
00:18:18,507 --> 00:18:23,707
A typical fantasy of a transvestite,
which only Kennedy took seriously.

237
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,499
Andy tells her
'You are not a star, like Marilyn.

238
00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:30,199
You are a super star!'
He made that up as a joke.

239
00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:32,700
It's the joke that destroyed the world.

240
00:18:32,730 --> 00:18:37,390
This happens when
an inside joke spread to the public.

241
00:18:39,486 --> 00:18:44,486
I'm Fran Lebowitz.
I started writing for 'Interview' in 1970.

242
00:18:45,409 --> 00:18:51,739
I met Andy when I came
Apply for a job in Factory.

243
00:18:52,249 --> 00:18:56,749
The elevator doors opened,
there was a metal door in front

244
00:18:56,754 --> 00:18:59,054
and the inscription: 'Knock loud and announce yourself.'

245
00:18:59,055 --> 00:19:02,255
With 20 years and his humor,
when I knocked

246
00:19:02,256 --> 00:19:05,956
and they asked 'Who is it?', I said
'Valerie Solance. Andy, open it!'

247
00:19:05,971 --> 00:19:10,971
I first gained an audience in the 70s and 80s,
writing for Interview.

248
00:19:10,980 --> 00:19:17,480
At that time, that audience was
99.9% male homosexuals.

249
00:19:17,524 --> 00:19:21,224
That audience was very important to me

250
00:19:21,230 --> 00:19:25,729
That was one of the factors
that shaped my voice

251
00:19:25,730 --> 00:19:30,230
Everyone talks about influence
AIDS on culture.

252
00:19:30,287 --> 00:19:33,287
Not anymore, but while it was discussed.

253
00:19:33,290 --> 00:19:38,290
They always mention the loss of artists,
but not the loss of audience.

254
00:19:38,546 --> 00:19:42,876
When they ask 'Why is ballet in
New York was so great?'

255
00:19:42,883 --> 00:19:46,133
Of course, thanks to i
top choreographers,

256
00:19:46,136 --> 00:19:52,036
but also because of the audience,
which was... I have no words!

257
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:56,229
If a ballerina makes a mistake,
she could have killed herself immediately.

258
00:19:56,230 --> 00:20:00,730
There were a billion people
who knew every detail.

259
00:20:00,740 --> 00:20:06,940
Knowledge of the topic by the audience
was at a very high level.

260
00:20:07,850 --> 00:20:09,999
It improved the culture.

261
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:16,000
A high level audience
knowledge of art

262
00:20:16,417 --> 00:20:22,417
it is equally important for culture
as well as the artists themselves.

263
00:20:22,506 --> 00:20:25,806
Now we don't have such an audience.

264
00:20:26,218 --> 00:20:30,918
That audience was dying, and fast.
You don't die so quickly in wars.

265
00:20:31,015 --> 00:20:37,015
This, of course, made it possible
2nd, 3rd or 4th level comes to the fore.

266
00:20:37,021 --> 00:20:41,421
Because, of course, they are the first since AIDS
died those who... how to say...

267
00:20:41,650 --> 00:20:44,249
fucked a lot.

268
00:20:44,250 --> 00:20:50,950
Those who were not infected with AIDS
were then praised as great artists.

269
00:20:51,368 --> 00:20:57,568
If dead artists were resurrected, she asked
I would ask them 'Guess who's famous now?'

270
00:20:58,584 --> 00:21:03,584
'Guess who's got a play on Broadway?'
'Who is a famous photographer?'

271
00:21:03,672 --> 00:21:07,072
They would fall to the floor.
'Are you kidding me?!'

272
00:21:07,676 --> 00:21:12,176
Because everyone else died - who is
last on his feet, now he's in charge.

273
00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:16,680
Losing that audience
it had a terrible impact.

274
00:21:16,688 --> 00:21:21,188
And a terrible effect on me.
Not just personal grief...

275
00:21:21,190 --> 00:21:24,190
Terrible effect on me, because...

276
00:21:25,152 --> 00:21:27,952
Everything has to be wider.

277
00:21:27,953 --> 00:21:31,453
I didn't do it,
but everyone else did.

278
00:21:31,492 --> 00:21:34,892
Everything must be more demonstrative,
clearer, simpler.

279
00:21:34,895 --> 00:21:37,995
Because the audience will not notice the subtleties.

280
00:21:37,996 --> 00:21:41,996
Things in culture that aren't
had to do with ballet,

281
00:21:42,503 --> 00:21:46,803
they were 'dumbed down' more and more.

282
00:21:47,841 --> 00:21:52,501
<i>We want to show the USA
show by Oscar Levent...</i>

283
00:21:53,500 --> 00:21:56,390
<i>- Pretty humiliating, isn't it?
- It's not.</i>

284
00:21:56,392 --> 00:21:59,042
<i>One of the wittiest
people ever on television.</i>

285
00:21:59,103 --> 00:22:01,883
<i>Understand that wit
not a common thing.</i>

286
00:22:01,897 --> 00:22:05,297
<i>No one in life is funny
says 2-3 smart things.</i>

287
00:22:05,317 --> 00:22:08,917
<i>And that too as a joke.
'Humorist' is something else:</i>

288
00:22:09,196 --> 00:22:14,696
<i>Humor for ordinary people, in the style of Charlie
Weaver, rarely deviates from the beaten path.</i>

289
00:22:15,828 --> 00:22:19,528
<i>I don't think I'm...</i>

290
00:22:19,623 --> 00:22:21,623
<i>He is a humorist, a comedian who...</i>

291
00:22:21,709 --> 00:22:24,209
<i>No, a humorist is someone like you</i>

292
00:22:24,210 --> 00:22:29,010
<i>for whom the four are writing,
and improvises in between.</i>

293
00:22:30,134 --> 00:22:34,134
<i>It's hard to be friends with him,
that's for sure.</i>

294
00:22:37,182 --> 00:22:39,882
In the last 30 years

295
00:22:40,102 --> 00:22:44,302
in culture there is excess, and in society
lack of democracy.

296
00:22:44,732 --> 00:22:47,132
There's no reason to
democracy in culture.

297
00:22:47,234 --> 00:22:52,234
Culture should be created
a natural aristocracy of talent.

298
00:22:54,742 --> 00:22:59,542
It has nothing to do with race,
which country or religion you are from,

299
00:22:59,747 --> 00:23:03,247
what matters is how good you are.

300
00:23:03,292 --> 00:23:05,792
It is a natural aristocracy.

301
00:23:05,878 --> 00:23:09,478
No, your book is not
as good as other books.

302
00:23:09,798 --> 00:23:14,648
It is impossible to change your life story
in a good book. Don't even try.

303
00:23:14,678 --> 00:23:19,488
I met Tony Morrison at an award show
awards... as if there weren't enough of them.

304
00:23:19,516 --> 00:23:22,566
Everyone came to see her how
receives his millionth award.

305
00:23:22,603 --> 00:23:27,103
I said: 'When you are
everyone here, let me say something.

306
00:23:27,274 --> 00:23:30,874
When Tony said:
"Write the book you want to read",

307
00:23:30,903 --> 00:23:33,903
She didn't mean everyone.'

308
00:23:35,199 --> 00:23:39,299
When I read the things you wrote,

309
00:23:39,411 --> 00:23:45,411
I notice some things
by sound, not definition.

310
00:23:45,709 --> 00:23:51,309
What is the difference between wit
comedians or humorists and writers?

311
00:23:52,258 --> 00:23:56,858
What do you think the difference is?

312
00:23:56,971 --> 00:23:58,806
- Courtesy.
- Courtesy?

313
00:23:59,098 --> 00:24:03,798
- Or the so-called 'heat.'
- Are you talking about wit?

314
00:24:03,852 --> 00:24:07,452
- No, about comedy.
- Yes, I understand.

315
00:24:07,460 --> 00:24:10,380
There are a lot of comedians
because people love comedians.

316
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,649
And they love them because they
comedians usually mock

317
00:24:13,650 --> 00:24:16,750
to a third person, someone
with whom they do not speak.

318
00:24:16,782 --> 00:24:20,482
Or if they directly mock the person, then
is in an offensive, vulgar way.

319
00:24:20,494 --> 00:24:26,194
But in writing, wit is not kind.
It must be cold.

320
00:24:26,959 --> 00:24:28,959
Wisdom is judgment.

321
00:24:29,086 --> 00:24:31,386
- Coldness in the style of Oscar Wilde.
- Yes.

322
00:24:31,422 --> 00:24:34,422
You say 'in style.'
As if there are more like him.

323
00:24:34,430 --> 00:24:37,430
There's only one, it's true.

324
00:24:38,762 --> 00:24:45,662
It's also usually short, it can't
be stretched to a full-length film.

325
00:24:46,687 --> 00:24:51,137
And it contains a lot of assumptions,
and Americans don't like that.

326
00:24:51,150 --> 00:24:54,750
They don't want to assume
or judge.

327
00:24:54,820 --> 00:24:57,570
Because it's elitist.

328
00:24:57,865 --> 00:25:00,565
I forgot what you asked me.

329
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,500
No, you explained it well.

330
00:25:05,539 --> 00:25:09,689
I adore you.
I am 47 years old, and when I was 15,

331
00:25:09,700 --> 00:25:13,850
you really saved me
you published 'Metropolitan Life'.

332
00:25:14,131 --> 00:25:16,331
I was once 47 years old...

333
00:25:16,383 --> 00:25:19,383
- Last year.
- Last month.

334
00:25:19,970 --> 00:25:23,670
- That's all?
- Yes... I bought this one in '93.

335
00:25:23,766 --> 00:25:28,266
- Take care of her, it's a younger signature.
- I was glad. - Thank you.

336
00:25:28,604 --> 00:25:31,204
When my first book came out,
I was 27 years old.

337
00:25:31,205 --> 00:25:33,504
People my age
they didn't publish books then.

338
00:25:33,505 --> 00:25:37,404
It's a generational thing, because mine
peers did not want to be writers.

339
00:25:37,405 --> 00:25:40,905
They wanted to be musicians or filmmakers.

340
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:45,099
Everyone I knew, who are
wanted to be artists, that's what they wanted.

341
00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:48,100
I was not part of a 'generation.'

342
00:25:49,583 --> 00:25:52,086
And it was said that this style was dying.

343
00:25:52,100 --> 00:25:57,100
People need to stop saying:
'This is over.' You don't know what's next.

344
00:25:57,174 --> 00:26:01,574
When my first book was published,
the publishers said, 'It won't sell,

345
00:26:01,585 --> 00:26:05,835
because since the 1920s no book
comic essays failed.'

346
00:26:05,849 --> 00:26:08,849
Although I was joking,
I said: 'So what?'

347
00:26:09,186 --> 00:26:11,686
I still say that today.

348
00:26:12,106 --> 00:26:15,606
Here's what happens: One book succeeds
and suddenly there are a million of them.

349
00:26:15,610 --> 00:26:18,710
- Who tried to buy the rights to the book?
- Everyone.

350
00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:23,720
I was with everyone who
have tried to buy the rights.

351
00:26:23,730 --> 00:26:26,930
I didn't sell it because...

352
00:26:26,940 --> 00:26:31,140
I didn't want them to destroy my book.

353
00:26:31,917 --> 00:26:35,717
It is a book of essays,
I know they would destroy it.

354
00:26:38,674 --> 00:26:42,674
My refusal, of course, is
interpreted as a tactic.

355
00:26:42,761 --> 00:26:45,361
To raise the price.

356
00:26:45,380 --> 00:26:49,380
There were several such meetings,
but I remember one.

357
00:26:49,602 --> 00:26:56,202
Maybe it was at Warner Bros.
they had a real office here in the 1970s.

358
00:26:56,220 --> 00:27:00,220
I remember sitting for
a huge conference table,

359
00:27:00,230 --> 00:27:04,530
and at the end they said:
'You probably want to direct.'

360
00:27:05,242 --> 00:27:08,642
I was amazed by that, because...

361
00:27:10,206 --> 00:27:13,506
I am at that moment
realized that they don't believe me.

362
00:27:13,510 --> 00:27:16,109
I said: 'I don't want to
to make a movie out of it.

363
00:27:16,110 --> 00:27:19,110
It's not just that I don't want to
to direct, I don't want a movie!

364
00:27:19,131 --> 00:27:23,631
And many movie stars
tried to buy the rights for themselves.

365
00:27:23,886 --> 00:27:26,386
Without naming anyone,

366
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:31,400
the quality of the stars of that time
she would refuse even the greediest of us.

367
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,560
I was at every meeting,
including the one it is on

368
00:27:35,570 --> 00:27:40,820
the interlocutor jumped on the table to give me
demonstrates how it can be a musical.

369
00:27:41,237 --> 00:27:46,237
It all took a very long time,
because I refused.

370
00:27:46,659 --> 00:27:49,459
That was unheard of.

371
00:27:50,412 --> 00:27:53,912
And nobody believed me,
including my agent.

372
00:27:54,208 --> 00:28:00,408
Everyone said:
"It's good that you refused, because..."

373
00:28:00,923 --> 00:28:05,523
Some sums that we
offered would be great even today.

374
00:28:05,530 --> 00:28:08,730
I was offered so much.

375
00:28:09,765 --> 00:28:12,965
And when the second book came out,
a new round has begun.

376
00:28:13,561 --> 00:28:16,811
If only I knew
that this is my last book...

377
00:28:16,814 --> 00:28:20,614
I didn't know that, but
it was worth the meetings.

378
00:28:20,693 --> 00:28:23,393
He will always be in my heart.

379
00:28:24,113 --> 00:28:28,613
He woke me up the next morning
call from the agent, she tells me that it is

380
00:28:28,615 --> 00:28:33,214
turned down a six-figure offer for the rights
to books that have not yet been written.

381
00:28:33,215 --> 00:28:36,915
'I think we can get more,' he says.
'We'll talk later.'

382
00:28:38,544 --> 00:28:41,844
I thought about it too
called to tell her:

383
00:28:42,006 --> 00:28:47,006
'Last year I earned $4,000
from what I wrote.

384
00:28:48,345 --> 00:28:52,845
This year they were offered to me
two six-figure sums

385
00:28:52,850 --> 00:28:55,550
for things I didn't write.

386
00:28:55,936 --> 00:28:59,436
Obviously, I started writing
in the wrong way.

387
00:29:01,859 --> 00:29:04,359
It turns out that not writing
it's not just fun,

388
00:29:04,361 --> 00:29:07,361
but, it seems, also very profitable.

389
00:29:08,282 --> 00:29:12,782
Call the producer and tell him yes
I have a bunch of books I haven't written.'

390
00:29:12,995 --> 00:29:16,795
You were on a tour to promote yours
book, 'Studies of society.'

391
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,550
Number 11 in the ranking
New York Times bestseller.

392
00:29:19,627 --> 00:29:22,227
What was it like traveling in America?

393
00:29:23,172 --> 00:29:25,272
Not like here.

394
00:29:25,341 --> 00:29:29,341
- I love Americans.
- What do you particularly like?

395
00:29:29,386 --> 00:29:31,486
How they buy books.

396
00:29:31,513 --> 00:29:34,913
- Everyone buys your book?
- Yes, and thank them for that.

397
00:29:34,934 --> 00:29:37,434
Do you think they know
what are you actually writing about?

398
00:29:37,603 --> 00:29:39,263
I hope not.

399
00:29:39,271 --> 00:29:41,991
I hear some think it is
a self-help book.

400
00:29:43,067 --> 00:29:45,267
Yes, it helps myself.

401
00:29:45,986 --> 00:29:51,992
Education and art
were pushed to the margins.

402
00:29:52,159 --> 00:29:59,542
Is anti-intellectualism
unique to America?

403
00:30:00,918 --> 00:30:04,918
I don't know what people around
world think about it,

404
00:30:04,940 --> 00:30:09,640
but, without a doubt, America
he has always hated 'nerds' and the like.

405
00:30:09,885 --> 00:30:13,385
When they invented the word 'elite',
they didn't think of the rich,

406
00:30:13,389 --> 00:30:16,789
because America loves the rich.
They meant smart.

407
00:30:16,850 --> 00:30:19,450
'We don't want elitists' means
'we don't want smart people.'

408
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,560
Do you think there are people
who are born lucky?

409
00:30:21,730 --> 00:30:24,149
That is the greatest happiness in life.

410
00:30:24,441 --> 00:30:28,041
Nobody wants to admit it,
especially in this country,

411
00:30:28,050 --> 00:30:30,650
because it undermines the very idea of America.

412
00:30:30,865 --> 00:30:35,865
But this is the idea of every democracy:
minimize the first second of happiness.

413
00:30:35,885 --> 00:30:39,885
When would newborns
had had such a consciousness,

414
00:30:39,900 --> 00:30:43,900
when inhaling the first breath,
most babies would look around

415
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,620
and thought: 'It wouldn't work.
I didn't imagine it like that.'

416
00:30:47,673 --> 00:30:49,173
Sex.

417
00:30:50,551 --> 00:30:53,151
Sex is a very big happiness.

418
00:30:53,387 --> 00:30:57,587
This big: Each
white hetero <i>non-Jew</i>

419
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,800
who is not the President of the United States,
he failed in life.

420
00:31:01,821 --> 00:31:04,521
That happiness is so great.

421
00:31:05,524 --> 00:31:08,194
What is the basic difference
between men and women?

422
00:31:09,403 --> 00:31:13,603
Testosterone.
It cannot be taught.

423
00:31:13,699 --> 00:31:17,699
If possible, they would read it.
Because it works.

424
00:31:17,870 --> 00:31:23,375
Testosterone is a chemical
in the human body

425
00:31:23,792 --> 00:31:28,592
It gives preference to men,
who have it,

426
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,600
because it makes them aggressive.

427
00:31:32,176 --> 00:31:38,176
The fact that women give birth
it harms women.

428
00:31:38,557 --> 00:31:41,757
Despite this, they want to give birth.

429
00:31:41,852 --> 00:31:46,922
They also do extreme things with the body,
only to give birth in their 40s or 50s, etc.

430
00:31:46,941 --> 00:31:51,741
And that puts them out of action.
In many ways.

431
00:31:51,820 --> 00:31:55,320
As soon as she gives birth, a woman
the child is very interested?!

432
00:31:57,826 --> 00:32:01,826
If he is in the room with his
baby, he keeps looking at her.

433
00:32:01,914 --> 00:32:05,914
Do you want such a person
for your lawyer?

434
00:32:06,877 --> 00:32:10,627
Men walk with babies,
i see them all the time

435
00:32:10,630 --> 00:32:13,380
talk about them
but they don't look at them.

436
00:32:13,390 --> 00:32:15,990
That your lawyers,
you would be left with lawyers.

437
00:32:16,011 --> 00:32:21,511
They are not interested in the baby,
they do it because that's the fashion.

438
00:32:22,309 --> 00:32:26,647
The fact that women give birth
it limits their options.

439
00:32:26,981 --> 00:32:30,109
Or they want to give birth.
This limits their options.

440
00:32:30,359 --> 00:32:33,059
While testosterone a lot
helps men.

441
00:32:33,070 --> 00:32:36,870
Men don't want women
they have power, because they have power.

442
00:32:36,949 --> 00:32:40,949
People don't want someone else
has what they have.

443
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:46,620
American school history textbooks are
I was taught that Africa has no history.

444
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,000
Neither do I.

445
00:32:49,420 --> 00:32:51,420
That I'm a savage.

446
00:32:52,214 --> 00:32:55,214
Which one is better
speak as little as possible.

447
00:32:55,426 --> 00:33:00,626
Whom Europe saved
and brought to America.

448
00:33:02,391 --> 00:33:04,721
And, of course, I believed it.

449
00:33:05,352 --> 00:33:09,852
I had no choice.
There were no other books.

450
00:33:10,983 --> 00:33:15,683
Everyone seems to agree on that
that when you leave Harlem

451
00:33:15,696 --> 00:33:19,896
and you reach the center,
what you see there

452
00:33:19,950 --> 00:33:24,750
it's much bigger, cleaner,
more white, richer, safer...

453
00:33:24,788 --> 00:33:29,788
Well, it seems so
created by God, that it is true.

454
00:33:30,669 --> 00:33:35,369
That you belong there
where the white people put you.

455
00:33:36,926 --> 00:33:41,526
It seems that of all
accusations that it is

456
00:33:41,530 --> 00:33:46,029
Mr. Baldwin presented at
bill of america tonight,

457
00:33:46,030 --> 00:33:51,030
as well as in its comprehensive
protest literature,

458
00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:54,200
'Next time - fire',

459
00:33:54,232 --> 00:33:56,232
in which he threatens America.

460
00:33:56,237 --> 00:33:59,887
He did not enrich his book
British accent

461
00:33:59,907 --> 00:34:02,207
which he used exclusively tonight.

462
00:34:02,326 --> 00:34:09,326
In the book, he threatens America
with the need to get rid of...

463
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:15,000
to reject
all our civilization.

464
00:34:15,464 --> 00:34:20,464
'The only thing a white man has,
and a black man should want,

465
00:34:20,678 --> 00:34:22,178
is power.'

466
00:34:22,304 --> 00:34:26,904
You have written a great article
for the race-themed Unity Fair.

467
00:34:27,059 --> 00:34:34,559
How do you feel about
public discourse on race

468
00:34:34,984 --> 00:34:37,984
in the last elections.

469
00:34:38,195 --> 00:34:42,245
Obama's speech on race, like
candidate, he was great to me.

470
00:34:42,283 --> 00:34:46,283
Unbelievable that no one until then
he did not make such a speech.

471
00:34:46,370 --> 00:34:52,370
When you're ahead of your time,
you get tired of waiting for the others to catch up.

472
00:34:54,336 --> 00:34:59,336
People are afraid to talk about it,
because they don't want to offend anyone.

473
00:34:59,350 --> 00:35:03,350
Or they talk about it
in an abusive manner,

474
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,960
trying not to
they sound offensive.

475
00:35:06,974 --> 00:35:09,574
I think it's mostly like that.

476
00:35:10,102 --> 00:35:13,702
I think it's very important
have a black president.

477
00:35:13,710 --> 00:35:16,710
Primarily in order to do that
left behind us.

478
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:21,400
It should be our past,
not the present.

479
00:35:21,488 --> 00:35:25,988
That's funny.
Stupid way to classify people.

480
00:35:26,327 --> 00:35:32,427
Regarding the article you mention,
the editor talked to me.

481
00:35:32,541 --> 00:35:36,041
He asked me if racism
disappear, can it end.

482
00:35:36,050 --> 00:35:39,350
I said no.
I don't think it will.

483
00:35:39,506 --> 00:35:42,006
It can also disappear
it is possible that it will disappear.

484
00:35:42,218 --> 00:35:46,318
Because it's a fantasy.
Racism is a fantasy of superiority.

485
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,119
The fantasy can disappear.

486
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:53,420
Most likely it won't happen
happen, but it is possible.

487
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:58,279
Women's inequality will not go away,
because it is biological. That's the reality.

488
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,529
Men really do
different from women.

489
00:36:01,530 --> 00:36:04,880
There really is a difference
between men and women,

490
00:36:04,884 --> 00:36:07,999
until there is no real difference
between different races.

491
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,000
The difference is superficial.

492
00:36:11,205 --> 00:36:14,535
Racism can disappear.
I don't think it will go away.

493
00:36:14,542 --> 00:36:18,642
The election of Obama does not prove it
that racism has disappeared,

494
00:36:18,651 --> 00:36:22,651
but that the situation is not
bad as before.

495
00:36:22,673 --> 00:36:24,873
You can't expect more.

496
00:36:24,927 --> 00:36:28,927
We are amazed because they are
Americans did something good.

497
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:44,730
The history of writing is
history of self-harm.

498
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,500
People drink, smoke...

499
00:36:47,533 --> 00:36:52,533
While writing, you are doing something bad to yourself,
to punish yourself, because you play God.

500
00:37:11,682 --> 00:37:14,282
Not the best time for writers.

501
00:37:14,351 --> 00:37:17,001
Because they don't have much
impact on culture.

502
00:37:17,021 --> 00:37:20,021
They used to be at the center of culture.

503
00:37:20,024 --> 00:37:24,524
The more desirable the situation,
because writers want influence.

504
00:37:24,653 --> 00:37:29,853
Algonquin Round Table Writers Group
influenced you in your youth?

505
00:37:30,492 --> 00:37:33,992
I read about them,
I'm not that old. [1920s]

506
00:37:33,995 --> 00:37:36,495
I didn't think so.

507
00:37:36,790 --> 00:37:39,418
- I read...
- They led happy lives.

508
00:37:39,793 --> 00:37:44,293
The life of those people in New York
it was certainly pleasant.

509
00:37:44,300 --> 00:37:47,800
They enjoyed life,
not that they didn't.

510
00:37:47,820 --> 00:37:51,819
They were not happy people,
in the sense you're talking about,

511
00:37:51,820 --> 00:37:54,320
but they enjoyed life.

512
00:37:54,558 --> 00:37:58,058
At that time people are
played word games.

513
00:37:58,270 --> 00:38:01,470
Adults.
They played word games.

514
00:38:01,857 --> 00:38:05,057
Culture as a whole
she had a great appreciation for language.

515
00:38:05,060 --> 00:38:07,360
So if you were good at it,

516
00:38:07,380 --> 00:38:10,679
like George S. Kaufman or
Dorothy Parker, Ill.,

517
00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:12,880
you were appreciated.

518
00:38:12,910 --> 00:38:16,310
<i>'Blades hurt, Rivers are wet,</i>

519
00:38:16,372 --> 00:38:20,072
<i>Acids disfigure,
You're in a spasm from the pills,</i>

520
00:38:20,167 --> 00:38:23,467
<i>Guns are illegal, Nooses shoot,</i>

521
00:38:23,504 --> 00:38:27,404
<i>The gas stinks,
So it's better to live.'</i>

522
00:38:28,300 --> 00:38:31,000
They call you 'Dorothy
Parker of our time'.

523
00:38:31,053 --> 00:38:36,553
<i>Do you agree and if not,
would you like to be like someone?</i>

524
00:38:37,601 --> 00:38:41,101
I am encouraged that someone,
who looks very young from here,

525
00:38:41,188 --> 00:38:43,388
ever heard of Dorothy Parker.

526
00:38:43,482 --> 00:38:45,982
And at this moment in my life,

527
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:51,000
I'm happy that they consider me at all
"something" of our time.

528
00:38:53,033 --> 00:38:58,633
I'm not the person who ever was
really wanted to imitate someone.

529
00:38:59,456 --> 00:39:03,956
If you read literary criticism
written by Dorothy Parker...

530
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:08,959
Criticisms of then popular books for which
you haven't heard of, writers you haven't heard of.

531
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,460
It's amazing how many there are
still funny today.

532
00:39:12,481 --> 00:39:15,981
You don't need to know the writer,
you don't need to know the book,

533
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:20,000
they lost all context,
and writers are very context dependent.

534
00:39:20,144 --> 00:39:24,644
She probably didn't think they would
someone to read, 60 years later,

535
00:39:24,815 --> 00:39:29,515
But they can be read.
And they are really, really fun.

536
00:39:51,091 --> 00:39:53,491
By wit,
Dorothy Parker.

537
00:39:53,500 --> 00:39:59,900
But for a real laugh out loud,
no one comes close to James Thurber.

538
00:40:00,309 --> 00:40:04,709
I was kicked out of class
more than once because I read Thurber.

539
00:40:04,730 --> 00:40:07,730
Secretly, under the bench
or in a textbook.

540
00:40:07,740 --> 00:40:10,040
Because you can't stop laughing.

541
00:40:10,064 --> 00:40:12,264
I slept in his bed.

542
00:40:12,270 --> 00:40:17,070
His childhood home is now a museum
and they invited writers to sleep there.

543
00:40:17,158 --> 00:40:19,258
I didn't sleep, of course...

544
00:40:19,328 --> 00:40:23,828
That's the museum I'm in
slept alone. I died of fear.

545
00:40:24,083 --> 00:40:26,183
Issued a US brand with it.

546
00:40:26,252 --> 00:40:30,251
I thought it was literary,
and not a postal event.

547
00:40:30,252 --> 00:40:32,352
A real stampede.

548
00:40:32,355 --> 00:40:36,985
President of the US Postal Service
he has a uniform like a general.

549
00:40:37,388 --> 00:40:39,088
Where was that?

550
00:40:39,181 --> 00:40:43,581
Ohio, Cincinnati or wherever
is already Thurber born.

551
00:40:43,769 --> 00:40:47,569
It was about issuing a stamp,

552
00:40:47,575 --> 00:40:52,475
and hundreds, if not thousands
people stand in line.

553
00:40:52,611 --> 00:40:55,711
I thought: 'Amazing.
So many Thurber fans!'

554
00:40:55,739 --> 00:41:00,939
No, those are stamp collectors.
Like a Star Wars conference.

555
00:41:01,245 --> 00:41:05,345
They come at every stamp release...

556
00:41:05,374 --> 00:41:11,474
They all look like Wars fans
star: Hundreds of sweaty boys.

557
00:41:11,755 --> 00:41:15,655
Envelope on the first day of issue
signed by all involved.

558
00:41:15,676 --> 00:41:18,676
And collectors want a signature
in a certain way.

559
00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:21,880
If you just misplace the pencil...
'NO!'

560
00:41:22,516 --> 00:41:27,016
The most bizarre thing in the world.

561
00:41:27,980 --> 00:41:31,080
About two months
after issuing the stamp,

562
00:41:31,150 --> 00:41:34,150
i'm not kidding
they changed the prices.

563
00:41:34,153 --> 00:41:38,153
Well, nobody needs that brand anymore.
Nobody uses it.

564
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,760
Not even two months.

565
00:41:39,783 --> 00:41:41,583
I have the stamps I got there.

566
00:41:41,637 --> 00:41:43,637
<i>(SERIES "Law and Order')</i>

567
00:41:43,662 --> 00:41:46,162
<i>How does Mr. Kaplan declare himself?
Peace!</i>

568
00:41:46,207 --> 00:41:48,907
<i>- I'm not guilty.
- I haven't heard that yet.</i>

569
00:41:48,918 --> 00:41:51,118
<i>We are still removing the bodies...</i>

570
00:41:51,212 --> 00:41:54,912
<i>Enough. Let others
solved the evidence, thank God.</i>

571
00:41:55,090 --> 00:41:57,640
<i>Bail is $300,000,
in cash or in promissory note.</i>

572
00:41:57,676 --> 00:42:00,976
<i>- Judge...
- Happy? No? Good.</i>

573
00:42:01,013 --> 00:42:02,313
<i>Next case!</i>

574
00:42:02,389 --> 00:42:06,089
It's my dream job,
judge of the Supreme Court.

575
00:42:06,185 --> 00:42:08,734
President of the Supreme
court, that's my dream.

576
00:42:08,735 --> 00:42:11,735
- Because of the clothes or?
- Maybe a robe...

577
00:42:12,274 --> 00:42:17,274
Others write for them.
Someone writes down the judges' ideas.

578
00:42:18,155 --> 00:42:22,955
I think I would make an excellent judge,
because I decide in a second.

579
00:42:22,969 --> 00:42:25,319
No one judges more than me.

580
00:42:25,329 --> 00:42:27,929
I don't know why it takes them so long.

581
00:42:27,930 --> 00:42:32,330
For each question discussed,
I know what the verdict will be.

582
00:42:32,628 --> 00:42:35,288
- Do you believe in...?
- No.

583
00:42:36,715 --> 00:42:40,835
- Do you believe in 'love for love'?
- Do I believe in revenge? - Yes.

584
00:42:40,844 --> 00:42:45,344
Definitely and absolutely
I believe in revenge.

585
00:42:45,683 --> 00:42:50,583
They say revenge is best cold...
She is good in every occasion.

586
00:42:51,188 --> 00:42:56,888
Use every opportunity for revenge.
Don't miss a single one.

587
00:42:57,570 --> 00:43:01,270
I believe in revenge,
but I don't believe in forgiveness.

588
00:43:02,116 --> 00:43:06,416
Maybe it's an ethnic thing,
because forgiveness is Christian.

589
00:43:06,453 --> 00:43:09,853
Forgiveness is, in fact,
the point of Christianity.

590
00:43:09,874 --> 00:43:13,674
They were all Jews, and Jesus appeared
and said: "I forgive you ...'

591
00:43:13,711 --> 00:43:17,311
And, of course, they all passed.
So it's a much bigger religion.

592
00:43:17,339 --> 00:43:20,839
But the Jewish God is not
vengeful, he is the judge.

593
00:43:20,843 --> 00:43:23,843
I would say that I judge.

594
00:43:24,305 --> 00:43:27,604
I'm afraid of fuel.
I don't actually know what fuel is,

595
00:43:27,605 --> 00:43:30,455
but i know it explodes
because that's how the car drives.

596
00:43:30,477 --> 00:43:34,677
I don't touch things that
they explode. I don't want to.

597
00:43:34,815 --> 00:43:39,695
My grandparents didn't
come here below deck

598
00:43:39,862 --> 00:43:44,162
that I would fill the car with fuel.
I don't put fuel in the car and that's it.

599
00:43:44,165 --> 00:43:48,165
I'm afraid of it, it explodes, it stinks...
I don't want to touch it.

600
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:54,200
I once had an argument with someone...
he had a million crosses...

601
00:43:54,251 --> 00:43:58,251
The van they are stuck on
all kinds of crosses and messages,

602
00:43:58,255 --> 00:44:01,055
'Jesus said this' and
'Jesus said that...'

603
00:44:01,133 --> 00:44:05,633
I said: 'I can't pour
fuel, I'm afraid of fuel,

604
00:44:05,635 --> 00:44:08,485
can you help me specify?

605
00:44:08,516 --> 00:44:14,216
'No!'
He was really rude.

606
00:44:15,773 --> 00:44:18,973
I said: 'Let me ask him,
Jesus would fill me with fuel.'

607
00:44:18,984 --> 00:44:22,184
You seem to be intimate with him….
All over the van you have

608
00:44:22,279 --> 00:44:25,229
'Jesus said this way or that way...'
I think he said,

609
00:44:25,324 --> 00:44:28,524
to ask: 'Jesus,
help me thin',

610
00:44:28,544 --> 00:44:32,544
he would say, 'Sure
it is Christian.'

611
00:44:37,670 --> 00:44:41,870
- I have Checker, did you know?
- Really? - I have Checker Marathon.

612
00:44:41,890 --> 00:44:44,890
I bought it new in 1978.

613
00:44:45,094 --> 00:44:48,694
When my first book came out,
the first time I had money.

614
00:44:48,764 --> 00:44:50,964
And one of the last times...

615
00:44:51,016 --> 00:44:53,216
I bought a car first.

616
00:44:53,394 --> 00:44:56,438
It's quite big,
about the size

617
00:44:56,605 --> 00:45:00,685
the apartment I was in
when I bought it.

618
00:45:00,693 --> 00:45:04,193
- Color?
- Such a delicate shade of pearl gray,

619
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,700
to straight men
they call it white.

620
00:45:06,824 --> 00:45:10,024
When I'm in the service, etc.
I have to say: 'Mine is white.'

621
00:45:10,035 --> 00:45:13,035
I used to say: 'White Checker'.

622
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:18,180
Today I have to say: 'Old white,
which looks like a taxi from the past.'

623
00:45:29,513 --> 00:45:32,813
As soon as I bought it,
I went to the bookstore

624
00:45:32,892 --> 00:45:36,192
where I knew the co-owner.

625
00:45:36,353 --> 00:45:40,253
He came out and said:
'Once a brat, always a brat.'

626
00:45:40,316 --> 00:45:44,816
Because it is madness to own
car in Manhattan.

627
00:45:51,702 --> 00:45:54,702
Nobody in Manhattan has
the car he uses,

628
00:45:54,705 --> 00:45:58,005
because you spend 8 million dollars
per month for the garage.

629
00:45:58,042 --> 00:46:01,842
For the price of that and renting an apartment,
in any other city

630
00:46:01,921 --> 00:46:04,921
you could live in luxury.

631
00:46:09,094 --> 00:46:14,094
Now I will answer the questions
from the audience in a fun way.

632
00:46:16,936 --> 00:46:20,936
You don't have to set them up
in a fun way.

633
00:46:21,315 --> 00:46:24,315
Don't ask in a funny way!

634
00:46:25,236 --> 00:46:29,386
When I'm on stage,
reading or being interviewed,

635
00:46:29,406 --> 00:46:32,156
I respond to reactions from the audience.

636
00:46:32,202 --> 00:46:35,802
But now you mostly hear
responses from the audience.

637
00:46:35,871 --> 00:46:38,971
And if I don't want something,
those are the audience's responses.

638
00:46:38,999 --> 00:46:44,199
It used to be called 'poking'.
Those are the audience's responses.

639
00:46:44,547 --> 00:46:47,047
Who wants an audience response?

640
00:46:47,633 --> 00:46:52,433
I think to myself: 'Really? You don't like it?
You came to hear me, not me you.

641
00:46:52,435 --> 00:46:55,085
I didn't break into your house.'

642
00:46:55,724 --> 00:46:59,324
Some people really don't like me.

643
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:04,000
And they almost never say anything ugly,
because they are afraid that I will return them uglier.

644
00:47:04,065 --> 00:47:07,965
Sometimes I visit universities.

645
00:47:09,071 --> 00:47:13,171
I remember that once
happened in New Orleans.

646
00:47:13,409 --> 00:47:17,489
There were many students who
looked like fraternity members.

647
00:47:17,496 --> 00:47:21,496
Those are not my usual audience,
but it seems there were plenty of them.

648
00:47:21,584 --> 00:47:25,584
Not groups of young men like
gays in san francisco,

649
00:47:25,713 --> 00:47:29,213
but those who together
they drink a lot of beer.

650
00:47:29,220 --> 00:47:32,720
You are not very happy
to see such in the audience.

651
00:47:32,730 --> 00:47:35,430
It was a long time ago,
in New Orleans,

652
00:47:35,431 --> 00:47:40,631
where there is always a lot of moisture
and it often rains,

653
00:47:41,020 --> 00:47:45,020
so my hair is soon
was very curly.

654
00:47:45,065 --> 00:47:50,515
One of those young men shouted:
'Who does your hair?'

655
00:47:50,696 --> 00:47:54,696
Strange question, because I
the hair was horrible,

656
00:47:55,451 --> 00:47:59,451
so I said:
'Why, you want to meet him?'

657
00:48:01,207 --> 00:48:05,807
A month later his
mother wrote me a letter

658
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:10,920
and said that I ruined her life
son, that he left college.

659
00:48:11,008 --> 00:48:17,108
'You called indirectly
my son gay.

660
00:48:17,890 --> 00:48:22,689
And his fraternity friends
they bullied him so much

661
00:48:22,690 --> 00:48:25,690
that he had to leave college.'

662
00:48:26,023 --> 00:48:29,523
I thought, 'Really?
He HAD to drop out of college?!

663
00:48:29,525 --> 00:48:32,825
No sense of humor,
so he HAD to drop out of college?

664
00:48:32,905 --> 00:48:36,235
If they support such a brotherhood,

665
00:48:36,236 --> 00:48:40,086
you should thank me for being your son
left that idiotic university.'

666
00:48:40,095 --> 00:48:42,695
I'm not often toxic.

667
00:48:42,700 --> 00:48:47,000
I don't like to say nasty things
to people's faces... very rarely.

668
00:48:47,002 --> 00:48:51,002
Primarily because I believe
into gossip.

669
00:48:51,215 --> 00:48:55,515
In this way, a gossiped person
he hears it repeatedly.

670
00:48:55,530 --> 00:48:57,930
Do you get nervous before a speech?

671
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,800
No, I keep everything
his fear of writing.

672
00:49:01,892 --> 00:49:05,092
Everything.

673
00:49:05,312 --> 00:49:10,412
Of course that's not good,
especially when you are a writer.

674
00:49:10,609 --> 00:49:15,809
It would be better to deploy the fear
and some other things.

675
00:49:16,100 --> 00:49:19,100
But I'm all fear
put in the same basket.

676
00:49:19,118 --> 00:49:23,118
I fell asleep once
waiting for an interview with Letterman.

677
00:49:23,205 --> 00:49:26,205
They had to wake me up.

678
00:49:26,458 --> 00:49:30,045
Writers are always last, of course.
'Miss America is over'.

679
00:49:30,838 --> 00:49:36,838
First the movie star,
then Miss America, then you.

680
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:39,600
I have no stage fright at all.

681
00:49:39,638 --> 00:49:42,638
Maybe you're tired of talking about it,

682
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,600
but tell me something about
To your writer's block.

683
00:49:47,897 --> 00:49:50,597
I wouldn't call it a 'blockade'.

684
00:49:50,691 --> 00:49:54,691
That sounds like it's temporary
thing, a month or two...

685
00:49:54,778 --> 00:49:58,778
- It's a much longer thing.
- A whole decade?

686
00:49:58,866 --> 00:50:05,166
To me it is similar to the Vietnam War,
same time schedule.

687
00:50:05,956 --> 00:50:11,956
I don't understand how I got into it
and I can't get out of it.

688
00:50:12,463 --> 00:50:18,463
I think I had a late one
and a not very positive reaction to success.

689
00:50:18,719 --> 00:50:22,619
Give lectures and
you write for magazines here and there.

690
00:50:22,620 --> 00:50:26,519
I taught at universities
3 million times this year.

691
00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:30,220
- A depressing way of earning.
- A lot of time on the road.

692
00:50:30,231 --> 00:50:33,381
Dragging around airports
with a small suitcase,

693
00:50:33,385 --> 00:50:36,385
I felt like
Willy Lumen literature.

694
00:50:36,390 --> 00:50:39,590
You loved to write until you became
professional writer.

695
00:50:39,900 --> 00:50:42,600
What bothers you about that?

696
00:50:42,660 --> 00:50:46,760
I think I am very much against it
authority, even your own.

697
00:50:46,830 --> 00:50:51,830
I'm really lazy.
The laziest person in America.

698
00:50:52,169 --> 00:50:56,169
No one is wasting any more time
from me, no one!

699
00:50:56,173 --> 00:50:59,173
Not that I'm bragging...

700
00:50:59,677 --> 00:51:05,377
but I would say that I am
ultimate time waster.

701
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:07,999
I don't need friends to tell me that.

702
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,999
My enemies will
say it's true.

703
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:14,000
In short, nobody loses
more time than me.

704
00:51:14,150 --> 00:51:16,249
I looked and it was 1979.

705
00:51:16,250 --> 00:51:19,250
When I looked again,
it was already in 2007.

706
00:51:19,300 --> 00:51:22,200
I thought: 'Fran,
you better start writing.'

707
00:51:22,210 --> 00:51:26,210
What is the best source
unbiased news?

708
00:51:26,287 --> 00:51:27,787
I.

709
00:51:28,700 --> 00:51:31,999
My opinion is the best
source of unbiased news.

710
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:35,400
This is the problem: It used to be
news was information.

711
00:51:35,421 --> 00:51:38,421
That is the essence of the news.

712
00:51:38,883 --> 00:51:41,783
Today every article,
no matter what it is,

713
00:51:41,802 --> 00:51:46,802
starts with:
'On the rocky road of Afghanistan...'

714
00:51:50,102 --> 00:51:55,202
And only in the 3rd paragraph do you find out that it is
a bomb blew something up in Afghanistan.

715
00:51:55,316 --> 00:51:59,016
The bomb is news,
and the beginning is a novella.

716
00:51:59,486 --> 00:52:03,086
The facts are what they are
what matters in the news.

717
00:52:03,157 --> 00:52:05,857
But more facts
nobody cares.

718
00:52:05,860 --> 00:52:10,460
People, amazing,
they are interested in other people's opinions.

719
00:52:10,774 --> 00:52:17,274
There will be no more unbiased news,
because no one knows what the news is anymore.

720
00:52:17,947 --> 00:52:21,947
People watch the news
to hear other people's opinions.

721
00:52:21,993 --> 00:52:25,493
That's what they want on TV and the Internet,
they participate in it.

722
00:52:25,538 --> 00:52:29,838
For example, when someone from CNN says:
'Here's our Twitter number...'

723
00:52:30,502 --> 00:52:36,002
Or an address, whatever it's called,
I'm not good with modern things.

724
00:52:36,100 --> 00:52:41,100
'We want to hear your opinion.'
I think to myself: 'Really? I don't want to.'

725
00:52:41,846 --> 00:52:45,846
<i>Host, Alex Trebek!</i>

726
00:52:46,309 --> 00:52:47,609
<i>Thank you, Johnny.</i>

727
00:52:47,610 --> 00:52:52,110
Shawn?
- 'Quotes by Fran Lebowitz' for 400.</i>

728
00:52:52,232 --> 00:52:55,832
<i>Fran warns that if
empty in conversation,</i>

729
00:52:55,860 --> 00:52:58,960
<i>it's as charming as it sounds.'</i>

730
00:52:58,988 --> 00:53:02,188
Lin? - What are intestines?
- Yes. - Lebowitz for 1200</i>

731
00:53:02,242 --> 00:53:08,042
<i>This hotel's 24-hour service means
the time required for the sandwich to arrive.</i>

732
00:53:08,123 --> 00:53:10,523
<i>- Sean?
- What is room service? - Yes

733
00:53:10,542 --> 00:53:14,042
The media have replaced
all institutions.

734
00:53:14,045 --> 00:53:16,445
Everything.

735
00:53:16,506 --> 00:53:20,006
They are the only authority.

736
00:53:20,927 --> 00:53:26,227
They act as an authority,
they replaced all other institutions.

737
00:53:27,392 --> 00:53:33,792
When television was invented,
some thought it would fail.

738
00:53:33,898 --> 00:53:39,198
They thought that people, when
they see things next to the screen,

739
00:53:39,946 --> 00:53:42,946
they will not believe what is broadcast.

740
00:53:42,991 --> 00:53:46,491
That he won't enjoy himself,
that they will be distracted by the environment.

741
00:53:46,661 --> 00:53:52,661
He will see next to the screen
the lamp and the sofa, they will not be taken over.

742
00:53:53,752 --> 00:53:56,952
That was one fear about television.
Another thing about her, in the fifties,

743
00:53:57,005 --> 00:54:00,505
intellectuals used to say:
'It will destroy the culture', etc.

744
00:54:00,508 --> 00:54:03,558
But no one predicted
what really happened

745
00:54:03,595 --> 00:54:07,895
for the world to enter television
and becomes a world unto itself.

746
00:54:07,974 --> 00:54:10,974
Although everyone says yes
Internet replaces television,

747
00:54:11,019 --> 00:54:17,089
it's just a different kind of screen,
different format for the same thing.

748
00:54:17,100 --> 00:54:19,400
I don't have a cell phone, I don't have a Blackberry,

749
00:54:19,444 --> 00:54:23,244
i don't have, what do you call it...
computer or any of those things.

750
00:54:23,323 --> 00:54:27,023
Microwave...all of it
things look the same to me.

751
00:54:27,118 --> 00:54:32,218
To tell me that you can send
a message from the microwave, I would believe.

752
00:54:32,665 --> 00:54:38,665
I don't have any of the enabling machines
people not to be who they are.

753
00:54:38,797 --> 00:54:41,797
Because I don't have them, and all the time
I am where I am,

754
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:44,300
I notice what other people do.

755
00:54:45,261 --> 00:54:48,761
Most people don't pay attention to it
where they are, because in fact they are nowhere.

756
00:54:48,807 --> 00:54:52,907
If you're doing this, you're there.

757
00:54:53,019 --> 00:54:55,619
No matter where you are physically, you are inside.

758
00:54:55,688 --> 00:54:59,988
For example New York street experience,
that I experience every day.

759
00:55:00,276 --> 00:55:04,276
I'm the only person on the street
which experiences the street.

760
00:55:12,500 --> 00:55:16,999
Walking around New York is public transportation.
I walk everywhere.

761
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:21,500
if i walk
I don't walk or jog.

762
00:55:21,923 --> 00:55:26,923
This being New York,
means I'm late somewhere.

763
00:55:27,387 --> 00:55:31,387
One of the things for which
I don't have time, it's a cart.

764
00:55:31,641 --> 00:55:36,741
In half of the cases, children in strollers
are so big that there is no room.

765
00:55:36,980 --> 00:55:40,230
Their feet drag on the floor...

766
00:55:40,240 --> 00:55:43,490
Two-foot-tall swinging...

767
00:55:43,695 --> 00:55:48,695
Who makes a cart with a mirror
for shaving, he will be a millionaire.

768
00:55:48,867 --> 00:55:50,867
when i was a child

769
00:55:50,870 --> 00:55:54,870
the worst insult among peers
was to call someone a baby.

770
00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:58,900
And now it is the goal of every child
to remain a baby.

771
00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:01,960
And, it seems, parents too.

772
00:56:02,088 --> 00:56:06,128
'We struggled to have a baby,
we better keep her.

773
00:56:06,134 --> 00:56:10,984
Two babies cost us $40,000.'
Maybe more, I have no idea.

774
00:56:11,014 --> 00:56:15,414
Someone will look and say:
'40000? Where does she live?

775
00:56:15,518 --> 00:56:19,418
Not here, here it costs 80 thousand.'

776
00:56:19,500 --> 00:56:23,800
They push the twins in the stroller
until the age of 16 or 17.

777
00:56:23,860 --> 00:56:27,960
They rock with a look on their face that says:

778
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:32,000
'Walking? That's not for me.
I don't walk.'

779
00:56:32,660 --> 00:56:36,960
What New York would look like
of your dreams, without tourists?

780
00:56:36,980 --> 00:56:38,699
New York of my dreams...

781
00:56:38,700 --> 00:56:43,999
No matter how old they are, everyone
they say that 'before' was better. Ever since.

782
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:48,300
As early as 1812, people were saying:
'Wasn't it better in the 1790s?'

783
00:56:48,301 --> 00:56:53,751
Everyone says it used to be better,
and that cannot always be true.

784
00:56:53,765 --> 00:56:56,965
I am very careful not to
I make mistakes like many others.

785
00:56:56,970 --> 00:57:02,470
They forget about the thing that happened
implies with 'it was better before.'

786
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:05,780
One thing that is
certainly true: You were younger.

787
00:57:05,819 --> 00:57:10,119
If you ask me if the 70s were better,
I would say 'definitely',

788
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:14,220
but I am aware that I am
In the 70s, she was in her 20s.

789
00:57:14,369 --> 00:57:18,369
I know it's better to be in
20s than in the 50s.

790
00:57:18,415 --> 00:57:21,415
I'm aware of that, OK?

791
00:57:22,293 --> 00:57:25,993
I think it's objective
New York was better,

792
00:57:26,005 --> 00:57:29,005
because he was less boring.

793
00:57:29,634 --> 00:57:33,134
Today, it seems, everyone has
high boredom threshold.

794
00:57:33,138 --> 00:57:35,338
And smoking was allowed.

795
00:57:35,724 --> 00:57:37,974
One of the reasons
why he was less boring.

796
00:57:37,976 --> 00:57:43,479
When you smoke, as much as you like
boring as it may be - at least smoke.

797
00:57:44,607 --> 00:57:46,607
Smoking is an addiction.

798
00:57:46,610 --> 00:57:51,810
We act like it's moral
failure, and that is a very strong addiction.

799
00:57:54,492 --> 00:57:57,292
Example: Even if
I'm starving

800
00:57:57,295 --> 00:58:01,695
I won't go out at 3 in the morning in the snow,
for nothing but cigarettes.

801
00:58:01,750 --> 00:58:07,750
I am once at 3 in the morning
went to buy cigarettes.

802
00:58:10,091 --> 00:58:13,891
The seller tells me:
'Marlboro Lite is on sale.'

803
00:58:14,012 --> 00:58:18,512
I think to myself: 'Really?!
Why? Why the reduction?'

804
00:58:19,500 --> 00:58:22,499
Like lowering the price of heroin.

805
00:58:22,500 --> 00:58:25,149
Discounts serve to attract you.

806
00:58:25,150 --> 00:58:29,449
I came at 3 in the morning, in the snow,
they can cost a million, I don't care.

807
00:58:29,450 --> 00:58:34,450
Everything they say about smoking today,
they used to talk about homosexuality.

808
00:58:34,783 --> 00:58:38,383
They said: 'Not near children!'

809
00:58:38,870 --> 00:58:43,870
'Passive homosexuality'
has always scared people.

810
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:52,699
Gay bars were banned.

811
00:58:52,700 --> 00:58:56,300
people secretly met,
the police would do raids.

812
00:58:56,346 --> 00:58:57,946
But smoking was allowed in them.

813
00:58:57,972 --> 00:59:02,072
That was illegal.
And unacceptable.

814
00:59:02,352 --> 00:59:05,952
If the police did
gay bar raid,

815
00:59:05,953 --> 00:59:09,953
at the time I came to
New York, circa 1969,

816
00:59:09,954 --> 00:59:14,454
the next day are the names of the guests
published in the 'New York Times'.

817
00:59:14,455 --> 00:59:16,455
Not just in some tabloid.

818
00:59:16,866 --> 00:59:21,366
And they were all fired on the same day,
no matter what they did.

819
00:59:21,579 --> 00:59:25,279
He could have been a cardiologist,
shoe salesman,

820
00:59:25,300 --> 00:59:28,500
or a high school teacher.
You are fired.

821
00:59:28,586 --> 00:59:31,586
The reason? Being gay.

822
00:59:31,590 --> 00:59:35,789
There was no pretense that
it is about another reason.

823
00:59:35,790 --> 00:59:37,490
It was a respectable act.

824
00:59:37,554 --> 00:59:41,054
Today gay bars have huge
storefronts, parking with service,

825
00:59:41,099 --> 00:59:44,099
from the car you can see who is sitting inside,

826
00:59:44,127 --> 00:59:47,127
but you have to go outside to smoke.

827
00:59:49,023 --> 00:59:53,623
If you had told me at the age of 14
that smoking will be

828
00:59:53,625 --> 00:59:58,275
my most deviant
activity when I grow up

829
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:02,630
I would spend my youth on
a fundamentally different way.

830
01:00:02,640 --> 01:00:06,440
I have a whole shelf of professional books
about homosexuality,

831
01:00:06,499 --> 01:00:10,199
doctors explain that
contagious, deviant...

832
01:00:10,211 --> 01:00:14,311
Also, I guarantee you,
although I won't experience it, because I smoke,

833
01:00:14,312 --> 01:00:17,012
but in your lifetime
will admit that they are

834
01:00:17,015 --> 01:00:20,015
information about the passive
smoking stretched.

835
01:00:20,055 --> 01:00:24,055
If a drop of smoke from
cigarettes so dangerous,

836
01:00:24,060 --> 01:00:28,560
imagine what happens then
when do you start the car?

837
01:00:28,897 --> 01:00:33,797
Is there progress in the field
gay equality in the US?

838
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:36,779
Are they part of the discourse
about civil rights?

839
01:00:36,780 --> 01:00:41,580
First of all, I think these things
they are not as similar as you think.

840
01:00:41,701 --> 01:00:44,221
It always existed
the difference between those things.

841
01:00:44,245 --> 01:00:49,045
There is a difference between
marginalization and oppression.

842
01:00:49,050 --> 01:00:52,049
I know, both are bad.

843
01:00:52,050 --> 01:00:56,050
I'm not saying it's not awful, just
I say it's not like slavery.

844
01:00:56,070 --> 01:00:57,920
It's not the same.

845
01:00:58,134 --> 01:01:03,634
Before, it was unthinkable to be gay.
Even if people use that word.

846
01:01:03,640 --> 01:01:07,439
That's progress, provided
to love that term.

847
01:01:07,440 --> 01:01:11,240
I don't use it in
private conversations, but...

848
01:01:11,356 --> 01:01:14,856
Do I think he's gay?
marriage progress? Not at all.

849
01:01:14,901 --> 01:01:17,901
That was one of the
advantages of gays.

850
01:01:22,826 --> 01:01:28,826
I'm amazed that they are
the two biggest wishes of gay activists

851
01:01:28,846 --> 01:01:32,846
marriages and military service.

852
01:01:33,200 --> 01:01:35,700
Really?!

853
01:01:36,923 --> 01:01:42,923
The two most restraining institutions
in the world, marriage and the army.

854
01:01:43,722 --> 01:01:46,722
Why are you even knocking on their door?

855
01:01:46,808 --> 01:01:49,908
The fight for freedom
should be just that.

856
01:01:49,910 --> 01:01:54,510
This is the opposite,
this is a fight for slavery.

857
01:01:54,774 --> 01:01:58,274
It's shocking to me.
If there is a referendum, I will vote 'yes',

858
01:01:58,319 --> 01:02:01,219
because I know that some
interested, but not me.

859
01:02:01,239 --> 01:02:03,539
I also don't want to join the army.

860
01:02:03,992 --> 01:02:08,992
People used to pretend
that they are gay to avoid the army!

861
01:02:09,289 --> 01:02:12,289
<i>I always had a theory</i>

862
01:02:12,584 --> 01:02:17,584
<i>yes if you want to touch
someone else as an artist

863
01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:22,700
<i>you have to be excited yourself
that's why you write.</i>

864
01:02:22,886 --> 01:02:27,886
<i>But you have to spend that emotion which
is in you, again and again,</i>

865
01:02:27,900 --> 01:02:31,400
<i>until nothing more
you don't feel for it.</i>

866
01:02:31,895 --> 01:02:35,895
<i>As long as you're the funny thing you are
wrote no longer be funny</i>

867
01:02:35,900 --> 01:02:39,800
<i>or if you wrote something sad,
that you don't feel like crying anymore because of it.</i>

868
01:02:39,819 --> 01:02:43,169
<i>See it as a remarkable detail,</i>

869
01:02:43,198 --> 01:02:47,598
<i>but you know it is
influenced you</i>so much

870
01:02:47,660 --> 01:02:52,660
<i>and that it will, if you succeed
reproduce, have</i>

871
01:02:52,665 --> 01:02:57,365
<i>same effect on someone else.</i>

872
01:02:57,462 --> 01:03:01,462
They said it was safe
something in homosexuality

873
01:03:01,470 --> 01:03:05,870
what makes you a better artist
because there are so many

874
01:03:05,887 --> 01:03:10,687
extremely high rate
homosexuals among artists.

875
01:03:10,690 --> 01:03:13,890
But of course that is not true.

876
01:03:13,937 --> 01:03:18,137
It is true that they imprison you for this,

877
01:03:18,233 --> 01:03:23,433
they don't let you
access or oppress you.

878
01:03:23,613 --> 01:03:28,113
Or they force you
that you are just an observer.

879
01:03:37,460 --> 01:03:39,860
When Tony Morrison got
the Nobel Prize for Literature,

880
01:03:39,879 --> 01:03:42,079
she called the couple
friends to the ceremony.

881
01:03:42,132 --> 01:03:45,532
Because what's the fun of conquering
rewards if no one sees you.

882
01:03:45,593 --> 01:03:49,593
At the Nobel Prize Ball,
which is an astonishingly complex event,

883
01:03:49,595 --> 01:03:54,445
and more than you think
festive... it's really nice.

884
01:03:54,460 --> 01:03:58,660
The whole town comes out and applauds
economists and writers,

885
01:03:58,689 --> 01:04:01,349
same as in New York.

886
01:04:01,735 --> 01:04:08,035
It is very formal, formal wear...
We all went in together, all her friends.

887
01:04:08,116 --> 01:04:11,616
There is someone in charge
for seating arrangements.

888
01:04:12,203 --> 01:04:17,503
All the friends were sitting at the same table,
besides me and Tony, she was sitting with the king.

889
01:04:17,584 --> 01:04:21,384
When I sat down, I realized that
I am the only adult at the table.

890
01:04:21,385 --> 01:04:25,584
Award winners
for science they are young,

891
01:04:25,585 --> 01:04:31,785
and I sat with theirs
with children at the Nobel award ceremony.

892
01:04:32,390 --> 01:04:35,910
It took me years to get used to it
solve at family gatherings,

893
01:04:35,935 --> 01:04:39,354
and now I'm sitting at the nursery
table at the Nobel Prize,

894
01:04:39,355 --> 01:04:42,055
where the next oldest
the person is 12 years old.

895
01:04:43,318 --> 01:04:47,918
This is how I experienced a festive dinner,
which lasted about six hours:

896
01:04:48,031 --> 01:04:51,031
Turn it off!
Take it out of your pocket!

897
01:04:52,660 --> 01:04:56,460
They read the menu,
the food is coming.

898
01:04:57,040 --> 01:05:00,340
The eight-year-old next to me
he asks me: 'What is this?'

899
01:05:00,418 --> 01:05:03,618
I said, 'It's a steak.'

900
01:05:03,922 --> 01:05:07,722
It was deer meat.
And he'll say: 'Really? Is that a steak?'

901
01:05:07,759 --> 01:05:10,059
I said, 'Yes, it's a steak.'
And okay, he ate.

902
01:05:10,095 --> 01:05:12,795
As soon as he finished eating,
his older brother says:

903
01:05:12,806 --> 01:05:17,006
'It's a deer! You ate Bambi!'

904
01:05:17,102 --> 01:05:21,402
And boy am I furious
looked: 'You lied.'

905
01:05:21,439 --> 01:05:25,539
I said, 'That's OK. I'm not you
mother, you will never see me again.

906
01:05:25,540 --> 01:05:28,740
You lied to me! How could you?
I won't trust you anymore!'

907
01:05:28,745 --> 01:05:32,645
I said: 'You will never even see me!
You are 8 years old and live in Kansas.'

908
01:05:32,659 --> 01:05:36,759
That's how I experienced Nobel.
Taking care of the children of Kansas.

909
01:05:36,788 --> 01:05:41,288
And I also learned something,
because I am at one point

910
01:05:41,376 --> 01:05:45,076
got up and went to the table
mine and Tonya's publisher,

911
01:05:45,130 --> 01:05:49,230
Tony is, of course, a more successful choice for them,
to ask his wife something.

912
01:05:49,259 --> 01:05:51,859
She was furious, she said:
'Bend down, what are you doing?!'

913
01:05:51,886 --> 01:05:54,136
'Down!'
She pushed me to the floor.

914
01:05:54,139 --> 01:05:55,639
I asked: 'What are you talking about?'

915
01:05:55,640 --> 01:05:59,440
She said, 'You can't
rise while the king sits!'

916
01:05:59,477 --> 01:06:02,777
You know that very well, Fran.'
I said, 'I don't know.'

917
01:06:02,814 --> 01:06:04,114
She said, 'You know.'

918
01:06:04,149 --> 01:06:06,449
I said: 'How would I know that!?'

919
01:06:06,450 --> 01:06:09,450
The only thing is that my mother
forgot to learn:

920
01:06:09,529 --> 01:06:14,429
'If you have dinner with Swedish
king, don't get up!'

921
01:06:14,492 --> 01:06:18,092
She said, 'Stay down,
you will cause an international incident!'

922
01:06:18,163 --> 01:06:20,563
Then she said:
'Go back to your desk.'

923
01:06:20,582 --> 01:06:24,782
I returned to my desk
like Groucho Marx.

924
01:06:24,794 --> 01:06:28,194
I always thought
to have good manners,

925
01:06:28,256 --> 01:06:30,156
but not enough for that.

926
01:06:30,216 --> 01:06:34,216
I hear there are some
problems, controversies

927
01:06:34,220 --> 01:06:40,220
related to your children's books,
'Mr. Chaz and Lisa Sue meet pandas.'

928
01:06:40,230 --> 01:06:41,730
What is it about?

929
01:06:41,811 --> 01:06:45,311
I got a lot of calls
panda expert.

930
01:06:45,482 --> 01:06:50,482
You were as surprised as I was,
because there are many panda experts.

931
01:06:51,404 --> 01:06:55,404
I received letters in which
it said: 'Pandas don't eat pizza.'

932
01:06:55,533 --> 01:06:59,933
- Really?
- They eat bamboo, that's why they are rare.

933
01:07:00,955 --> 01:07:05,855
Because there is less and less bamboo.
- That's why there are no pandas?

934
01:07:05,877 --> 01:07:10,177
That's right. That's why I would
should have eaten pizza.

935
01:07:10,465 --> 01:07:14,165
Pandas in my book say...

936
01:07:14,260 --> 01:07:18,260
An obvious attempt to deceive
the American public.

937
01:07:20,392 --> 01:07:23,092
You write real books for adults.

938
01:07:23,100 --> 01:07:27,899
I mean you normally write for adults,
and now you have written a book for children.

939
01:07:27,900 --> 01:07:29,599
Which is easier to write?

940
01:07:29,600 --> 01:07:32,400
- Children's books.
- Really? Why?

941
01:07:32,570 --> 01:07:36,070
It is less complicated and
pictures fill up a lot of space.

942
01:07:37,575 --> 01:07:42,575
What happens when this happens
you appear on TV, when you say:

943
01:07:42,595 --> 01:07:46,195
' It's easy to write for children.'
- Easier.

944
01:07:46,200 --> 01:07:50,599
Will writers for children get upset,
and you will receive letters from them?

945
01:07:50,600 --> 01:07:54,500
- Yes. - Really?
- Yes. - Now you have offended them.

946
01:07:54,509 --> 01:07:57,709
But they write with pastels...
on cardboard...

947
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:03,000
Well, it's not that threatening.

948
01:08:03,935 --> 01:08:10,935
The development is interesting to me
age-related creativity.

949
01:08:11,276 --> 01:08:17,776
I wonder why some are
artists better in late age.

950
01:08:18,283 --> 01:08:21,333
Not all writers get better
with age, certainly not.

951
01:08:21,340 --> 01:08:25,340
First of all, some
they have nothing more to write about.

952
01:08:25,790 --> 01:08:29,090
For example Fitzgerald.
If he had lived longer,

953
01:08:29,100 --> 01:08:32,900
there is no doubt that it would
his writing worsened?

954
01:08:32,920 --> 01:08:35,920
He wouldn't improve as a writer.

955
01:08:36,051 --> 01:08:38,051
But he wrote 'The Crack-Up.'

956
01:08:38,094 --> 01:08:40,594
That. Before death.

957
01:08:41,931 --> 01:08:46,931
Require someone to constantly
creates masterpieces is psychotic.

958
01:08:46,978 --> 01:08:51,232
To say of Fitzgerald that it is
wrote only one great book...

959
01:08:51,983 --> 01:08:54,783
Really? And how many of them
written by an average person?

960
01:08:54,819 --> 01:08:58,619
Most writers write a million books,
and they don't write a single good one.

961
01:08:58,656 --> 01:09:02,156
I'm not detracting from that
the value of their works.

962
01:09:02,243 --> 01:09:06,243
Tony Morrison's new book is, by
in my opinion, her best book.

963
01:09:06,331 --> 01:09:08,081
He is 76 years old.

964
01:09:08,100 --> 01:09:13,299
There is an idea related to the representation of the artist
in the eyes of people, which has nothing to do with art.

965
01:09:13,300 --> 01:09:15,900
A romanticized image of the artist.

966
01:09:15,926 --> 01:09:20,726
It is that the artist must be young,
because no one sees old people as romantic.

967
01:09:20,730 --> 01:09:24,729
I've always been interested in older people,
I always had older friends.

968
01:09:24,730 --> 01:09:27,729
Some of them are so old that
by the time I turned 40,

969
01:09:27,730 --> 01:09:29,260
many died of old age.

970
01:09:29,270 --> 01:09:34,020
But because they were older than me,
I learned something from them.

971
01:09:34,026 --> 01:09:36,856
Not because I thought so
that they will do something new,

972
01:09:36,861 --> 01:09:40,361
that was my job
such was the division of labor.

973
01:09:41,366 --> 01:09:46,466
There is nothing new, because it is
a culture imbued with nostalgia.

974
01:09:46,705 --> 01:09:50,205
I believe they cause it
people my age.

975
01:09:50,250 --> 01:09:53,250
This cannot be caused by 17-year-olds.

976
01:09:53,503 --> 01:09:57,303
'Who's behind the wheel,
he is responsible for the accident.'

977
01:09:57,382 --> 01:10:02,982
If you are young, everything seems new to you.
You don't know it's not new.

978
01:10:03,805 --> 01:10:07,205
When you go to the exhibition
young artist,

979
01:10:07,210 --> 01:10:10,410
everyone says he's amazing
and you look and think:

980
01:10:10,478 --> 01:10:13,478
It's surrealism,
it is 100 years old.

981
01:10:13,732 --> 01:10:19,332
But you must know about him,
otherwise it seems like a new invention to you.

982
01:10:21,656 --> 01:10:25,756
The last 30 years
culture endlessly recycles.

983
01:10:25,760 --> 01:10:27,910
Deathblow.

984
01:10:27,912 --> 01:10:32,212
I think it's awful.
Really horrible.

985
01:10:32,375 --> 01:10:35,575
I would like to see such a change.

986
01:10:36,046 --> 01:10:38,746
That is the task of young people.

987
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:41,440
It's their job
create something new.

988
01:10:42,510 --> 01:10:47,010
<i>The action continued until Tuesday,
enemy flags flew

989
01:10:47,098 --> 01:10:50,498
<i>above the war monuments.
With the members of the order forces.</i>

990
01:10:50,560 --> 01:10:56,560
Mr. Vidal, wasn't it a provocative act
wave the Viet Cong flag in the park?</i>

991
01:10:56,733 --> 01:11:00,133
<i>Many things are provocative,
but if we have freedom of assembly</i>

992
01:11:00,195 --> 01:11:03,794
<i>and freedom of speech, that must be
allowed. That is the whole idea of the USA.</i>

993
01:11:03,795 --> 01:11:06,395
<i>The point of American democracy is that</i>

994
01:11:06,409 --> 01:11:10,609
<i>allowed to express any opinion. Shut up.
- I won't

995
01:11:10,663 --> 01:11:14,223
<i>People supported the Nazis
and they were well treated</i>

996
01:11:14,292 --> 01:11:18,492
<i>from the people who condemned them and
I'm in favor of people</i>'s condemnation

997
01:11:18,505 --> 01:11:21,005
<i>that encourage others to
they shoot at the US marine</i>s

998
01:11:21,049 --> 01:11:22,799
<i>and soldiers. I know you don't care...</i>

999
01:11:22,801 --> 01:11:28,001
<i>To me, you are pro-Nazi
or crypto-Nazi</i>

1000
01:11:28,014 --> 01:11:29,914
<i>and let me just say...</i>

1001
01:11:29,933 --> 01:11:34,233
<i>Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi
or I'll shoot you</i>

1002
01:11:34,270 --> 01:11:37,970
<i>so you won't recover.</i>

1003
01:11:37,982 --> 01:11:41,682
<i>Gentlemen, let's save
To Myra Breckenridge.</i>

1004
01:11:41,694 --> 01:11:45,094
<i>Go back to your porn
and stop talking about Nazis.</i>

1005
01:11:45,115 --> 01:11:49,615
<i>I served in the infantry in the war.
- You didn't serve there.</i>

1006
01:11:50,453 --> 01:11:52,853
<i>That's not true. You are misrepresenting
his military file.</i>

1007
01:11:52,854 --> 01:11:56,454
<i>In this country there is
the right to take any position,</i>

1008
01:11:56,459 --> 01:12:01,959
<i>because freedom of expression is guaranteed.
We have just heard a grotesque example of that.</i>

1009
01:12:03,500 --> 01:12:07,699
(host of the ceremony
national literary awards)

1010
01:12:07,700 --> 01:12:14,200
I heard that the Bush administration
appointed 'Iraq Study Group'...

1011
01:12:14,570 --> 01:12:17,230
just last week.

1012
01:12:25,030 --> 01:12:29,030
Even if you are an elementary school student

1013
01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:33,000
and you have a math test,

1014
01:12:33,913 --> 01:12:37,413
when do you think it's best to study?

1015
01:12:41,129 --> 01:12:44,629
Before the test

1016
01:12:48,261 --> 01:12:51,761
or three years after the test?

1017
01:13:04,402 --> 01:13:08,902
Where do you think they are
members of that group?

1018
01:13:10,075 --> 01:13:14,075
In the restaurant at the top of the 'twins'?

1019
01:13:18,124 --> 01:13:22,124
don't complain
I'm not even getting paid for this.

1020
01:13:22,879 --> 01:13:28,379
Life experience: Once it's a quarter
million people shouted at me.

1021
01:13:28,635 --> 01:13:31,935
And all because of Joe Papo.

1022
01:13:31,971 --> 01:13:35,471
There was a movement for
freedom of Jews from Russia.

1023
01:13:35,475 --> 01:13:37,275
A big deal for the Jews.

1024
01:13:37,310 --> 01:13:41,060
But not for the Russians or anyone else.
No one noticed it.

1025
01:13:41,070 --> 01:13:46,270
Joe Pap organized
demonstrations in front of the UN,

1026
01:13:46,800 --> 01:13:51,299
they asked for a free departure
Jews from Russia.

1027
01:13:51,300 --> 01:13:54,200
Since the Pope led
public theatre,

1028
01:13:54,244 --> 01:13:59,244
he invited a lot of famous actors

1029
01:13:59,250 --> 01:14:05,550
who read at the meeting
letters of Jews from Russia.

1030
01:14:05,714 --> 01:14:10,714
He called me and offered
to participate in it.

1031
01:14:11,052 --> 01:14:13,952
I agreed, and then he told me:

1032
01:14:13,960 --> 01:14:18,710
'I was at the promotion of your book,
don't read it that way.

1033
01:14:18,727 --> 01:14:21,427
You must not be refined.

1034
01:14:21,430 --> 01:14:25,429
It's not enough to raise an eyebrow,
as you read then in the bookstore,

1035
01:14:25,430 --> 01:14:29,230
you have to be expressive
like Gregory Peck, you know?'

1036
01:14:29,320 --> 01:14:31,120
I think to myself: 'Of course not!'

1037
01:14:31,197 --> 01:14:35,347
Important difference: Gregory Peck
is an actor. I didn't. I can't act.

1038
01:14:35,368 --> 01:14:38,968
He expected me to present
the person who wrote the letter.

1039
01:14:38,997 --> 01:14:43,197
But I really wanted it...
When I looked,

1040
01:14:43,209 --> 01:14:47,909
I was surprised by how much
people there... I guess a billion.

1041
01:14:47,910 --> 01:14:50,810
Of course, I never did
had such a large audience.

1042
01:14:50,842 --> 01:14:54,842
As I like public speaking,
I thought:

1043
01:14:54,850 --> 01:14:58,249
'Great! It's great how many people there are.'

1044
01:14:58,250 --> 01:15:02,050
Gregory Peck was great.

1045
01:15:02,604 --> 01:15:06,604
I don't remember the other actors,
but they were all excellent.

1046
01:15:06,649 --> 01:15:11,249
They all talked a little, before
than they read the letter.

1047
01:15:11,321 --> 01:15:14,321
Joe Pap came to me
and said: 'First say something.

1048
01:15:14,322 --> 01:15:16,322
Do you have anything to say?'
I said, 'No.'

1049
01:15:16,409 --> 01:15:19,509
So he said, 'Think of something.'
I said 'OK.'

1050
01:15:19,537 --> 01:15:23,541
I came out with a letter,
mentioned the author's name.

1051
01:15:24,042 --> 01:15:28,542
I don't remember who it was then
was the president of Russia,

1052
01:15:28,630 --> 01:15:34,930
but I said: 'When So-and-so sees
on TV how many people came here,

1053
01:15:34,935 --> 01:15:39,935
will immediately satisfy yours
requirements, because I know for myself -

1054
01:15:39,940 --> 01:15:44,940
I wouldn't want that much
Jewish women are angry with me.

1055
01:15:45,313 --> 01:15:50,113
A quarter of a million people
shouted in unison: "Boo!'

1056
01:15:50,151 --> 01:15:54,751
It's the sound that you
I can't describe it!

1057
01:15:54,864 --> 01:15:58,464
They are two rabbis
left the stage.

1058
01:15:58,493 --> 01:16:01,343
I didn't understand what was happening.

1059
01:16:01,350 --> 01:16:06,150
The joke may not be the funniest,
but it's not that bad either.

1060
01:16:06,209 --> 01:16:09,909
Joe Pap stood like this.

1061
01:16:09,921 --> 01:16:12,221
Does he want me to leave?

1062
01:16:12,632 --> 01:16:16,132
Not! I had to read
with shouts in the background.

1063
01:16:16,177 --> 01:16:19,877
The most difficult experience with the audience
that I experienced.

1064
01:16:19,889 --> 01:16:24,389
I had a police one
escort on departure.

1065
01:16:24,477 --> 01:16:28,477
People were mad at me,
even after reading the beautiful letter

1066
01:16:28,523 --> 01:16:31,123
of a good Jew who
wants to leave Russia,

1067
01:16:31,125 --> 01:16:34,725
unlike me
an evil Jew who mocks people.

1068
01:16:34,738 --> 01:16:37,738
The police took me out of the neighborhood by car.

1069
01:16:38,241 --> 01:16:41,741
What could I do after that?

1070
01:16:42,162 --> 01:16:45,662
Not much, I'm afraid.

1071
01:16:45,999 --> 01:16:47,999
You are fantastic.

1072
01:16:48,084 --> 01:16:50,084
Thanks.

1073
01:16:50,503 --> 01:16:53,203
You tell it like it is.
I love it.

1074
01:16:53,214 --> 01:16:56,314
- This is not my book.
- What?!

1075
01:16:56,384 --> 01:16:58,384
Who is this?

1076
01:16:59,304 --> 01:17:01,304
Fran Lebowitz?

1077
01:17:01,973 --> 01:17:03,773
What is this?

1078
01:17:03,808 --> 01:17:05,808
That's not me.

1079
01:17:06,603 --> 01:17:09,103
This is another Fran Lebowitz.

1080
01:17:09,606 --> 01:17:12,106
What is this?!

1081
01:17:13,860 --> 01:17:16,860
Is this your booth?
Or the one over there?

1082
01:17:16,863 --> 01:17:19,363
I consider this one mine, but...

1083
01:17:19,407 --> 01:17:22,207
All over New York
hundreds of thousands of people

1084
01:17:22,243 --> 01:17:27,043
they think they have a table in a restaurant.
'This is my desk, you know?'

1085
01:17:27,123 --> 01:17:31,223
'This is my dry cleaner.
They moved MY chemical room!'

1086
01:17:31,336 --> 01:17:35,836
New Yorkers have
that sense of ownership,

1087
01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:40,239
although no one owns less
than the average New Yorker.

1088
01:17:40,240 --> 01:17:42,939
But they feel they have the most.

1089
01:17:42,940 --> 01:17:45,440
Did you pose for this picture?

1090
01:17:45,464 --> 01:17:48,864
No, I didn't even know
that he will paint her.

1091
01:17:48,865 --> 01:17:53,765
I ate here one evening
and saw that someone from another table

1092
01:17:53,817 --> 01:17:57,817
looks at me and the picture...
And I hear him say to the waiter:

1093
01:17:57,820 --> 01:18:02,820
'Ask Miss Leibowitz if she wants to
meet the man who drew it.'

1094
01:18:02,830 --> 01:18:05,630
It was Mr. Sorrell.

1095
01:18:05,650 --> 01:18:09,950
He sat down with me.
He said he drew from a photograph.

1096
01:18:10,460 --> 01:18:13,210
At first I thought
that it is a little too rough.

1097
01:18:13,211 --> 01:18:15,711
Now I think I look younger.

1098
01:18:16,005 --> 01:18:19,005
In one moment yours
the worst picture at the age of 25

1099
01:18:19,050 --> 01:18:23,050
becomes better than the best at 45.
Unquestionably.

1100
01:18:23,847 --> 01:18:26,747
When you need another
opinion, who do you contact?

1101
01:18:26,766 --> 01:18:29,266
Why should I?
second opinion?

1102
01:18:29,394 --> 01:18:33,794
You mean like a cardiologist?
That kind of second opinion?

1103
01:18:34,107 --> 01:18:38,107
When I'm interested in other people's opinions,
I'm going to a cardiologist.

1104
01:18:38,528 --> 01:18:41,328
Thank you very much, good night.

1105
01:18:44,576 --> 01:18:49,076
Whether people seek my advice or not,
it is a great pleasure to know everything.

1106
01:18:49,122 --> 01:18:51,422
I'm sure people are thinking:
'She doesn't know everything.'

1107
01:18:51,425 --> 01:18:53,825
They are wrong, I know everything.

1108
01:18:53,960 --> 01:18:56,960
It is a great pleasure to know everything,

1109
01:18:56,965 --> 01:19:01,265
and especially to look at others,
who do not know everything.

1110
01:19:01,801 --> 01:19:07,501
I'm in the stage of life that I would
called 'who laughs last...'

1111
01:19:09,809 --> 01:19:13,409
I have the last laugh.
It's nice.