00:00¿Did you ever play cricket? ¿Did you? ¿Are you a sporting man?
00:03I wouldn't describe myself as a sporting man, but I was forced to play cricket at school.
00:11¿Did you enjoy it?
00:12I hated every moment of it.
00:16¿What about America, though? I mean, do you play any sports now? You live in America. American football, anything like that.
00:22Oh, no. Now I'm happily beyond the point where anyone can expect any activity of me whatsoever.
00:34Now, you've lived in America for the last six years. How do we look from over there? What's your perspective on Britain from over there?
00:46Well, it looks nicer from over there.
00:50Oh, that's a hard thing to say.
00:54But it is very different. America is very different. England is quieter, cozier, more restful.
01:05America is more vigorous and more ambitious.
01:10But also, of course, Americans are very, very friendly.
01:15You see, in England, you have to make friends. It's very tiring.
01:22And when you've made them, you get stuck with them, which is more tiring.
01:27But in America, you never get stuck with anybody.
01:31Three weeks is a meaningful relationship.
01:39And that's what you like? You don't like long-lasting relationships?
01:43No, they're worrying.
01:44You were remembering The Naked Civil Servant, your book, and you were given a rough time over here when you lived here in your 20s and your 30s.
01:56Do you think you'd have a happier time now if you were growing up here now, if you were in your 20s now?
02:02Would it be any different?
02:03Oh, yes. My life would be much easier now.
02:05Happier?
02:06Oh, yes.
02:07Why do you think that?
02:08Well, because anything goes. You see, happiness, life, the world, has fallen into the hands of the young.
02:18See, when I... there were no teenagers when I was young.
02:23You were a dear little thing until you were about 10 years old, and then there was an embarrassed silence until you came out the other end.
02:34For one thing, you had no money. There could never have been a teenage market, because no teenagers had any money to spend.
02:43But do you think people would have been more tolerant of the way you behave and the way you dress?
02:47Oh, yes. Now, what... I mean, I live on the Lower East Side.
02:53There is nothing you could wear or do or say that would make you seem remarkable.
03:00There are people with rocking horse hairdos. The ends of their hair are gold, and the middle of their hair is green, and the roots are black, and nobody is taking the faintest notice.
03:13That doesn't please them, does it?
03:17Well, I don't know whether it pleases them. I worry. The punk movement began in England.
03:25But the sad thing is, the punk movement is a hostile movement. The punk people are not happy, and that worries me.
03:35Because if you can do anything, if you can say anything, if you can wear anything, then surely your attitude toward the world should be benign, friendly.
03:47Yes, but surely, if you're allowed to do anything you'd like, then there's no incentive to do anything.
03:54There is, if you make chains for yourself.
04:00When the chains are not put on you by others, you have to exercise a certain amount of discipline.
04:06So you have to try and invent a way of going on, a way of living, a way of speaking, dressing, that represents you.
04:18And that is your discipline.
04:20And that tells you where to go, what to do, how to live.
04:25How would you describe yourself? Do you think yourself, do you see yourself, do you feel happy?
04:30Oh, yes, I am happy now.
04:34On my passport, it says that I'm a writer.
04:38But really, I'm a cross between an evangelist and a clown.
04:45Where does the evangelism come in?
04:47Just as you just said, people should do whatever they want to do, is that right?
04:51That's right. I only understand happiness.
04:55And all I can do is tell the people of America how to be happy.
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