"I think it’s probably easy to dismiss the characters as stereotypes, if you 

weren’t in the same scene that we were. The truth is that three of the 

main characters are me, the fourth was a friend of  mine, and all the 

other characters are people I knew and hung out with. We were 

characters, misfits, and outcasts, and that’s why we gravitated towards 

each other, towards a scene where there was acceptance, loud music by 

bands who didn’t know how to play their instruments, S&M clubs, 

drugs, alcohol, motorcycles and fights. We weren’t  stereotypes – that’s 

who we were. What upsets me more than anything in novels and movies 

in this genre (Selby Jr. I’m looking at you) is that they seem hell bent on 

portraying only the moments of shock and depravity  – they rob the 

reader and the viewer of the full experience. Yes, we were really fucked 

up and yes, we did bad things, but we were still trying. I still spent some 

Sunday mornings eating cereal and watching cartoons with a 7ft tranny. 

And, even though you’re all jacked up and your apartment has no 

furniture, you still try. Even though the person cooking the turkey has 

been up for three days and can’t remember how to work a stove, and 

your guests keep going to the bathroom to shoot up  and then keep 

falling asleep in the mashed potatoes, you’re still there celebrating 

Thanksgiving. There are still moments of utter joy  and there is still so 

much laughter. If, as an artist, you don’t portray that, you’re nothing but 

a cheap hack. "

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