Buck Henry

(Excerpt from Buck Henry interview)

In the autobiography of Al Goldstein, the former editor of Screw magazine, there’s a passage about you visiting a San Francisco striptease club in 1981, where Goldstein had sex onstage with five women. True?

All true. I’ve been in various seedy and unacceptable places for many years with Al Goldstein, although we stopped communicating a few years ago.

You’ve mentioned in the past that you have a voyeur nature. Would this be an example of that?

I think all writers should have a voyeur nature. You have to look and listen. That’s why some writers might run out of material; they’re not looking, they’re not listening.

How do you achieve this? Where do you look and when do you listen?

I think the problem is that, if you live in California—and especially if you live in Hollywood—you aren’t connected to what the rest of the world thinks of as real life. Your observations are based on what you see on television and not what is going on in reality.

If you ride in limos for too long, you tend to forget what cabs, buses, and subways are like. You lose contact. I think it’s important to stay in contact with the outside world.

Did you always gravitate toward comedy rather than other genres? Did it always come easily to you?

Yes, but I’m actually more a fan of other genres than I am of comedy. I rarely go to comedies. I just don’t find comedy as interesting as the forms that I don’t do myself. It’s harder to make me laugh than it is to make me cry.

You once said that comedy covers a lot of faults.

It is defensive in nature. With comedy, you deflect danger. You cover up emotion. You engage your enemy without getting your face smashed in. . . .