Clover - // Andy, just wondering how you knew Quentin Crisp.
[Apologies, Mexican18] //
I was commissioned to interview him by phone for a magazine when he lived in New York.
I rang his agent to ask him to contact Mr Crisp, and the agent said, "Here's his number, give him a call …" and I was gobsmacked!
To this day, with the exception of acoustic and jazz musicians, who have no money, and no sense of entitlement, no-one gives personal numbers to journalists.
When I questioned Mr Crisp about his availability to the world, he quite reasonably pointed out that there was no point having a phone if people couldn't phone you up - and as he was listed in the Manhattan telephone directory, anyone could call, and he would answer if he felt like it, and not if he didn't.
I pointed out that someone like Michael Jackson is nothing like so available, and Mr Crisp pointed out another in his depthless list of wise observations -
If you hide away, you can kid yourself that the world is trying to beat a path to your door. It is that mystery of unavailability that attracts people, and if you are available, as I am, you find that no-one is really that fascinated with you anyway. They show The Naked Civil Servant on cable tv maybe twice a year, and the phone goes mad for about three weeks, and then everything goes back to normal.
When we finished our interview, he told me he had enjoyed talking with me and to call him back any time I felt like a chat. He was obviously far too honest - having built his entire life around his inability to lie about anything, including his sexuality - to be just being polite, so I did ring him often and we did chat, and as I said, I am still sad I can no longer do that.
He was a wonderful wise and kind man, the world is poorer without him.