no I saw you in that film the man who
came to earth and that was a man who was
in his own void way yes very much
do you feel that yourself somatically
I've always dealt with isolation and
everything I've written I think so it's
something that triggers me off it it
always makes me interested in a new
project if it has anything to do with
alienation or isolation do you feel
isolated though not really but I can I
can quietly imagine how it must feel to
be isolated so I have often put myself
in circumstances and in positions where
I am isolated just so that I can write
about you do in a way I've sort of been
thinking quite a lot about you and often
often seen you anyway that's the smoke
bothering you no it's not at all because
we're gonna make you who that mysterious
that you talked about I think that it's
not at all mystifying why you change
your appearance as often as you do to my
view by the way because I think you've
used yourself as as a canvas yes very
much so
was that right yes very much so I never
wanted to appear as myself on stage ever
at any time until recently I think so I
as I did writing character form I wanted
to produce those characters on stage
which is something I feel I did quite
successfully at the time that was simply
an exercise of projecting something else
like you say for instance you would be
presenting a picture well I was also I
wanted to use rock and roll in some way
or Arthur and I got tired of the sort of
the lie of the rock performer is exactly
the same on stage as he is off stage
which in most case isn't true at all but
so I thought well take it a stage
further and completely separate the
personalities the person behind it all
who's writing it and creating it and the
one up front but does the interviews and
does the shows and and so I created the
characters and put them on stage and
then I would take them further and put
them into interviews and I would only do
interviews as the character
well you're hiding yourself from us
partly but I was enjoying it very much I
mean I like the idea of taking it to
that sort of surreal stage is that sort
of again
carry on with it right because you work
you went to art school before you did
anything else didn't you yes yes as we
all did everybody I went to answer right
and you paint now yes but your paintings
you're not willing to let us see yet no
I've been offered there two or three
showings but I've turned I've accepted
two of them and then I broke my word and
said I wouldn't show them like I haven't
yet backed up the courage why not
what what what do you fear well I know
I'm a good writer I'm not sure about
putting my paintings are they're very
personal to me as well they're all
portraits and they're all portraits of
people in isolation most of the
paintings are Germans or Turks who live
in Berlin and they're either from East
Berlin and who are now living in West
Berlin and knowing their families are on
the other side of the wall and so I
tried to capture a lot of that kind of
isolation and I put a lot of myself into
the paintings as well they're very much
part of me if you're interested in
isolation is it because you think that a
person in an isolated state feels
greater emotions than they do when
they're surrounded by people and things
I think if he is in isolation instead of
receiving the the whole world as his
home he tends to create a micro world
inside himself and it's that peculiar
part of the human mind that fascinates
me about the small universes that can be
created inside the mind some of them
fairly schizophrenic and quite off the
wall does that mean you have to separate
yourself quite a lot from say falling in
love and getting very involved with a
person oh no I think no I do I think
quite the reverse for me I do fall in
love quite quickly
once upon a time used to falling off
quite a lot but I know I think I think
love is very important for my writing
but love falling in love is different
from then going on to love that person
yes it is yes
and once you love somebody
a lot it means that you've got to share
your life with them that's what I know I
don't think so you can love somebody
from afar but if you then decided not to
love them from the fires what I mean
you as an artist would have to give up
quite a lot of your time to them yes and
I can't do that that's what I was
wondering well you didn't know love
can't get quite in my way because it I
feel I shelter myself from it incredibly
what do you shelter yourself again I
mean sorry I'm losing that other you
lost your that's partially that hard
yeah over a fight yes over a fight over
design no it was he wanted it and I
wanted it but I kept it um well that was
over I think I can't remember it very
well it was over a girl I can't remember
her name was it your first love when
David Bowie no I wasn't even in love
with her I don't think and he thought I
was and in a manner of speaking
but I wasn't in love with her and so he
came out and belted me one day but he
and she's you've loved in your time
haven't you so I've read I've only heard
- but it was - you've been asked the
question whether you're bisexual or not
- many times
yes and you you've never quite answered
it oh I have I said I was bisexual
that's enough hmm hmm does that mean
though that you really are or does that
mean that you you're you're keeping some
I've answered the question
right okay right can I ask you another
question about yourself in isolation
partly when you're you're now living in
Japan aren't you I just come back from
Japan I don't know where I'm going to
next when you're living in a place is
that because you again want to be
isolated yes no not yes now at the
moment it wasn't a couple of years ago I
wanted to put myself in dangerous
situations which I did put myself in any
situation which I feel I can't cope
dangerous situations such as what can
you explain areas where I have to be in
sort of social contact with people which
I'm not very good at doing I don't know
what you mean now
well like I went to Los Angeles and I
lived there for a couple of years which
is Sidhe I really detest yeah so I went
to live there among people that I didn't
like very much to see what would happen
to my writing and then did you find you
did to test the place Oh quite twice as
much as when I went there well what did
you think you're going to detest about
it before you got there everything it
represented such as then what I mean
that do you dislike America no I like
the plains of America I like New Mexico
very much in the Ryota ground and that
area but I don't like American cities
too much I like the real cities like
Chicago and Detroit mm-hmm I can't quite
see what the difference between Los
Angeles well it's sort of a callous it's
a it's a it's sort of a blister on the
backside of humanity really yeah
whereas Detroit has a real people
energetically trying to survive but in
Los Angeles its fabrication yeah in in
real life where I'd deal with
fabrication in public but my real life
is not at all fabricated hmm you know
you said you do want to be in situations
which which you're frightened of right
yes but how easy is it for you to mix
generally speaking with people because
surely you're so famous that people
would recognize you straight away and
therefore no they don't at all really no
I have no problem with that really hmm
but then perhaps is that because you do
go deliberately to a new new place yeah
yes that's why I went to Berlin when I
left America yeah I wanted to have
another kind of friction and so I went
to Berlin and I found the friction I
wanted what was that people living under
the impression that everything might
collapse very quickly and people are
very serious there and don't care too
much about flippancy
hmm that's it's a very tight life
they're surrounded by a wall with
machine guns
which is ever coming in on you more you
live there the longer you live there the
more it comes in and the wall by the end
forces though it's right around the
apartment or house that you're staying
when you lived in Germany did you get
involved with people there I mean
writers and artists yes there are some
of the new wave bands and some of the
serious writers there
I quite enjoy them very much but most of
the time I spent on my own hmm when you
went to Japan which is nice where you
are now right yeah
what was the while there next well when
I first started trying to bring
pantomime into rock and roll my other
influence of the time part from German
Expressionism was Kabuki theater
so I I'm from kabuki I then got
interested in the cultural religious
aspects of Japan what do you find on the
balance between the the heritage of
Japan and the modern world that they
have them how they balance it which is
very precarious to say the least this is
a friction there as well when you go to
a place I'm not a very good travelling
myself I resist it because I if I can't
speak the language I don't feel I'm
gonna be able to communicate and so
forth you know sort of frightens me um
when you go what's the kind of first
thing you get to know about a place in
order to make you start to feel a little
as if you belong to it
cafes and bars I think you know where to
buy food yeah right you've got you you
paint and what painter do you think has
influenced you Eric heckle you've
described yourself as a writer what
writers have influenced you William
Burroughs might change my mind tomorrow
but yeah if you're asking me immediately
those are the first things that come to
mind yes I mean as a child who do you
think Donald Duck was he your favorite
character than was my loathed him
you maybe learn how to hate that's very
hard I've always hated the Donald Duck
he sends me quite crackers when I heard
him very unlikable did you dislike
Mickey Mouse as much yes did you like
any of the traditional people that you
were supposed to like like did you like
Winnie the Pooh no no Rupert bear no no
I didn't teddy bear no I didn't I don't
think I can't remember having anything
like that at all now I never liked and
children's things very much I always
liked paintings from very early age
thank you very very much indeed for
talking to me I really enjoyed it
