And now it’s giving people serious mental problems.  It’s driving people nuts.   No sooner had cannabis been downgraded then they realized it should be upgraded. It smells so strong, it makes me ill.  When I walk by kids smoking it, I can almost see them in an Edvard Munch, Scream-like way, with these vibrations coming off them because it’s really fucking their brains. Only a few little things need to change for your life to take a different path. I reckon writing is what you’re left with when a load of other things haven’t worked out.  For me, if I hadn’t been sacked from my job after a month and if a number of job interviews had gone differently I would have been something different. I remember thinking, ‘This world of work is really not for me.’ 

MC: But writing is a ton of work.

GD: It beats working for a living.

MC: Does it?  When I’m working carpentry, and haven’t thought about an essay for months, I’m unquestionably content, or at least too preoccupied to be depressed.  And when I’m doing what I want to be doing, which is write, I end up having spells where I feel really shitty.

GD: Is your house full of the nice things you’ve made?

MC: Mostly I give the things I make away.

GD: So how come all I got is a Grateful Dead CD? I always liked the name and the logo, but the soft chug along sound—Really, I’ve always felt the music sort of sucked.

MC: If this interview is a hit, I’ll send you something wooden.

GD: If you make me sound about fifty times more intelligent and witty, it will be.

MC: If there had been MFAs in your day, would you have gone?

GD: If I’d been in America, probably.