The solitary life, that led him, years ago, to pen The Naked Civil Servant has made him a Public Man.

The book became a BBC film. The BBC gives authors next to nothing (I think he told me how much he got and in American terms it was something like $500), but it made him famous. He had little bed-sitter in London. Now he left, at an age when most men would retire, 65, for a New Life in the New World.

He left for New York. "If you want to rule the world you must go to New York" he was to intone (many times, in many interviews).

And here, in New York, he lives modestly, on the Bowery, in a tiny apartment with no intercom, for $75 a week.

And here, in America, he lives, immodestly. As he tells us in the book, interviews for places like People magazine, TV interviews, a part (as a queen, Queen Elizabeth, the Great Elizabeth) in an "art" film: "Orlando".

The New York based magazine he wrote for has folded, ditto the New York based newspaper.

He has gone ahead and in Minneapolis, on Gay Pride week he spoke to a packed bookstore, Borders, in Uptown and later at a reception on June 28, 1997 in the Minneapolis Warehouse after having given a reading for his latest book RESIDENT ALIEN that I found him.

The reception was funded in part by the producers of the movie, based in Minneapolis, Homo Heights.

The "warehouse" - at 430 First Avenue North -- was a very clean, large, well-lighted place, industrial carpets, art-deco styling, broad staircases with gleaming handrails, the stairs leading up to the second floor, the Chuck Smith studio, where the reception was. I paid a $10 voluntary donation for the benefit of District 202 for Homeless Youth and went in.

The place was crowded and noisy. I had come near the tail-end, about 11 PM, and the crowd was sauced. Lots of red and white wine free and circulating served by bare-chested large-breasted male servers (are the Lesbians to get Nothing???). The bodies of the servers were nicely oiled and had silver sparklers sprinkled on but their hors d'oeuvre trays had grapes with pits and no napkins on the trays to spit the pits into; big pieces of cheese, mostly blue, nothing to cut the cheese and no crackers to eat them with.

And those servers didn't look like Homeless Youth. Well, this was not false advertising. They invitation said it was for, not by, or with Homeless Youth.

But it did say invitees would have a chance to chat with Quentin Crisp and that's what I'd come for.

I was directed to a corner and there he was, behind a screen, chatting with one (only one) admirer who was leaving as I came in, I holding my list of questions, ready either the sheet to him to mail to me later with the answers or, in a few minutes, give me the answers.

Mr. Crisp, about to leave the reception and next-morning to leave Minneapolis, elected to talk the answers.

Leo Skir:. Do you write longhand or use a typewriter (manual/electric?) or a computer?

Quentin Crisp: I used to use a typewriter but I've lost the use of my left hand. Now I write, using my right hand, as I used to, taking what I write to a Mr. Phillip Ward, who, very kindly, with no payment, types it out and it goes on the Internet, which seems to be where I am now.

My old worlds, the New York Native and Christopher Street, have folded. I assume their purpose of serving the Kinky, has been taken over by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

I have no idea what to say to the World it seems I am addressing. My life is most parochial. I live on New York's Lower East Side and never leave it.

The world. I don't know the World. But it seems that's where I'm headed.

L.S.: I assume -- hope -- a new collection will be coming out of your pieces on films-seen. If so, when and, if you have the title, can you let us know?

Q.C.: No, my movie book was a collection from Christopher Street. I was taken to movies to write about them. The last one I saw was [here he mentioned a flick with a name like........Brosco with Pacino, mentioning how much he'd like Pacino and the film. But I don't think I'll see movies now.

L.S.: Can you give a date when we in Minneapolis will be seeing Homo Heights. Are we going to have the WORLD PREMIERE here?

Q.C.: I don't know. You will have to ask that lady there..[he indicates one of the producers of Homo Heights standing nearby. At the reception were several transvestite men who seemed to have some connection to the movie.]

L.S.: You mention watching TV. There are two shows with real-gay issues: Roseanne with the gay-male couple and one being her boss in the diner, the second, the sit-com Ellen. Have you seen either?

Q.C.: I don't see TV much. I've not seen Ellen. I know Ms. Barr's and Mr. Goodma's work and like it very much.

L.S.: You have played Elizabeth I. If you could enter/go-thru a magic mirror like the one in Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete and emerge as one character, either fictional (like Belle) or real- historic who would it be?

Q.C.: Oh, dear me, no, I've never wanted to be anyone else. I was too busy being myself. I did admire Miss Deitrich a great deal. She was different. The other female stars could not exist without the men who created them behind them. Dietrich learned to re-create herself. All those stars weren't women. They were a man's idea of a woman, a Jewish man's idea of a fantasy woman. The Jews married nice Jewish women but they created these blond vamps, putting their feet in men's faces. In once film Ramon Navarro moans to Garbo: "Yesterday you said you loved me!" and she replies, "That was yesterday." Lang created Brigitte Helm [Metropolis -1926], Stiller created Garbo, Sternberg began Deitrich. She went on to create herself.

L.S.: Have you ever thought of writing a novel? If you have the time what would be the plot?

Q.C.: Oh no, I could never write a novel. That requires some knowledge of Motivation. You have to have people doing things and know why they're doing them. I don't know why people do the things they do.

L.S.: You have now been to many American cities? Do you find - putting New York aside, one you enjoyed visiting, might want a stay in (assume it's not winter-in-Minneapolis).

Q.C.: [without pausing ] Los Angeles. Because everyone there is beautiful and rich.

L.S.: You mention only one thing British you hang on to: those crossword puzzles. Anything else, some food (bangers and mash?), some drink? some place?

Q.C.: No, nothing I miss of England. I like eating English food. It tastes of nothing and I like that.

L.S.: You mention often swooning in your youth over the heroines in the films. My own homosexual longing went over to such figures as Robin in the Batman comics (I would closely inspect the tight-fitting non-crotch green bottom piece of his outfit and was thrilled by the bare thigh seen which Tarzan played by Johnny Weismuller, let us see. Were you ever drawn by these visions?

Q.C.: No, never. I was never drawn to the male film stars. My concern was with myself. I had to overcome upsetting people, being disliked to find that person I was.

L.S.: If you could put a message in a bottle, send it out to the generations of gay youth who will be "coming out" in the future, leaving the Normal World, their mother and father, joining the Tribe, what would you, having come through great trials, give that single-person coming-out to help them emerge???

Q.C.: Oh, that coming-out business! I keep getting asked that. Of course I was out, but -- that telling-your-mother stuff. I have a message. DON'T TELL YOUR MOTHER! Your mother hates you. If you leave some coins on the table and go out, fifteen minutes after you're back she's told everyone. Yes, of course she did love you when you were a child. She owned you. You had no personality. You were a toy. But now you have to go on, and going on means being Alone.

Diaries
http://worldstyle.com
Quentin Crisp's E-mail address: hrhqcrisp@aol.com