Sebastian Horsley

ALL PETS ARE FLUSHABLE

The mice are back. I guess it is that time of year. I have to say I don’t mind them. When I was on heroin I would just lie in bed all day staring at my big toe. They realised that the Lord of the house was…well, indisposed. They got cockier and cockier. They would come out and dance in front of me and eat my Kraft cheese squares. And then one day suddenly they disappeared. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe the rats ate them?

I always feel that they have as much right to this place as me. But then shouldn't they be helping with the mortgage payments? Last year after two sleepless nights I decided to get traps. I set them up with cheese and biscuits. Within half an hour an hour I heard the satisfying crack as the wire smashed the brittle crust of its neck.

The big male mouse was dead. It's little head to one side, blood oozed onto the floor. Ten minutes later the female lay dead by his side.

My first thought was : Fucking hell - are mice that stupid? "Oh there's my husband dead with his head in a trap. Fuck it, I'm hungry." Or maybe it was it suicide? Dogs sometimes commit suicide usually by drowning or by refusing food, for a number of reasons - generally when the animal is cast out from the household, but also from regret or remorse or even sheer ennui. Animal suicide of these kinds is capable of being regarded as a manifestation of intelligence.

I felt terrible. I was a murderer. I was overcome with remorse.

I could see the headlines : "Prince of Darkness Slays Mouse."  "Dracula Gets Mouse Counselling."

I guess I could have done it differently. A friend of mine set the humane traps. Two of them. In the morning she thought she had caught one. Set a mouse free. Off it ran, straight into my house no doubt. Then a few days later she realized there had been another mouse in the other trap. It had starved to death.

I’m not sure what to do this time. I could get a cat? But after it had eaten the mice what then would I do with it? I guess a cat has got nine lives - which makes them ideal for experimentation.

Surely I can get rid of the mice by telling them I want a long-term relationship?

READY, FIRE, AIM

Don’t you just loathe the environment? Why don’t they just drop an Atom bomb on the place?  The environment is everything that isn’t me. So of course I’m not interested in it. And neither are you. You pretend to be because it is fashionable. But we must choose our opinions, not just wear what ever happens to be in style. Do you think the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the planet because they didn’t recycle? You morons. When you turn proud, remember that a flea preceded you in the order of divine creation. Remember that the life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of a cockroach.

As for me? Well, I am the happiest man on the planet. It is a win win situation. I don’t believe your green money making propaganda. I despise your charity beanos - all you rich fuckwits buying a reputation for generosity on the cheap. Caron footprints, Aids, cancer, starvation, nuclear war, pollution, and the end of the world, are no more solvable than the problems of finding a smudge proof mascara. The depletion of my hairspray is more important to me than the depletion of the ozone layer. The least pain in my little finger gives me more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of my fellow beings. I remain deaf to the call of social justice. As for human rights? Quite obviously I couldn’t give a toss ; I could hardly manage to be interested in the rights of my cock.

And if you are right. Hooray! Becoming extinct is a perfect answer to everything and I defy anybody to think of a better. Do you think we leave behind us footprints on the desert sands of time? Who cares? The meaning of life is that it stops. So let it stop. Infact, I alone hold the solution! If everyone on earth stopped breathing for just an hour, the greenhouse effect would no longer be a problem. And the bore galore would be no more. Fancy a fuck?

IF THIS IS LIFE, ROLL ON DEATH

What, in the last resort, is there to be said for January and February? They are the months designed to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like. It is so cold. In winter the temperature falls well below the legal minimum in my flat. You see, I have no central heating here. I live alone with my gas fire and we are happy this way. None of us go out when unattended.

Has the weather been privatised? Even wearing two pairs of arctic quality gloves my finger joints remain iced shut. Even with a polar hat my skull is cold as a cannonball and - worse still - my hair style is squashed. Ice is forming on the upper slopes of Sebastian. Fuck it - I‘ll be alright. Has a gentleman who knew he was well dressed ever caught a cold? I suppose I should think of people less fortunate than myself. The best that can be said for the cold is that it exterminates the old.

It is January. Another fucking year. Look at me. I am a useless dandy. I am almost bankrupt. I will either commit suicide or die at the age of 45 because I will have said all there is to say … will you marry me?

The Lord of Abominations. God of Dispersal and Emptiness.

PRAISE MAKES ME HUMBLE BUT WHEN I AM ABUSED I KNOW I HAVE TOUCHED THE STARS

I am feeling very happy. I have spent the day collecting all the bad reviews of my book. And you know what? The more one is hated, I find, the happier one is.

Of course, it is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise. To be unworthy of praise, and undeserving of blame. But I ain’t no holy old Ghandi-man of the mountains. Fuck that. You can calculate the worth of a man by the numbers and quality of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.

I've always believed that I have the ability to arouse instant enmity in certain people. They meet me and hate me on sight. Sometimes it gets to me and I mope about the studio wailing “Everyone hates me.” But then I come too. “Don’t be silly darling. Everybody hasn’t met you yet.”

It seems that, within me, there are two profound needs at play : the need to be liked, and the need for exactly the opposite. And I’m happy with that. When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I’m slipping. Besides, a hundred hisses outweigh a thousand kisses. The former come more directly from the heart.

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation or creed. I hate every thing. Well, just two things actually. Living things and objects. Oh and miscellaneous, just in case I left anything out.

As for you lot? It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something. So hate me cocksuckers. I only want negative comments on this diary. If you can’t say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.

See if you can match any of these : -

“Sebastian Horsley, a man who has absolutely nothing to declare but his own lack of talent.  He is a prat ... a wanker. This book should be avoided by anyone of a nervous disposition or by anyone who has a fondness for the female sex. The question that may enter the enquiring mind is this : what exactly is the point of Sebastian Horsley? Do him a favour and bin it.”  The Standard.

“An emotionally infantile spoiled brat, a vapid poser, he has less talent than a used condom”  QX magazine.

“An insufferable cretin.” The Leeds Guide.

“An attention-seeking tosser.” The Telegraph.

“This book is forced and embarrassing. He is a show-off who can’t do anything. He has a wild artistic temperament, but no talent.” The Telegraph.

Horsley is the grubby/moderately brighter equivalent of the model/actor. His heroes (Brummell, Byron and his namesake Sebastian Flyte) wouldn’t have liked Horsley.  The chip on his shoulder squeals from every page. Spare yourselves this trivial autobiography and wait for him to appear on Celebrity Big Brother. The Literary Review.

Do your worst tosspots. Use me and abuse me. Marks will be given for the most wilfully offensive. We are going to use them for the American publication next year. Remember : that which cannot be wholly concealed should be deliberately displayed.

NOVEMBER 5TH

Guy Fawkes had the right idea : blow the whole shithouse sky-high.

The Hallowed Queen.

I AM THE MAMA OF DADA.

Here are some happy customers of my book :

Posted by: DT | October 30, 2007 at 03:09 PM 

I'm sitting here in the book club at The Hospital where we have been discussing Dandy of The Underworld.

Our verdict: Nobody has finished the book. All of us are leaving our copies here so we don't have to bother carrying them home. Except me - I left it at home because I couldn't be bothered bringing it in.

Posted by: Damian | October 30, 2007 at 08:12 PM 

It's also the only book that has prompted us to get online, seek out the author and sledge him.

Posted by: Damian | October 30, 2007 at 08:13 PM 

AMAZON REVIEW Oh the pain..., 30 Oct 2007

By	Damian Clarke (London, UK) - See all my reviews

There is so much to say about how boring this book is, but honestly, it's not worth the wear and tear on my keyboard, or fingers.

Damian, on behalf of The Hospital book club.

******

Dear Damian and the Hospital Book Club Group.

I am delighted you got as much misery reading my book as I got pleasure spending the money you paid me for it.

Suck My Nazi Cock

SH

SUCK MY NAZI COCK

This Questionnaire has just been published in Hotpress. It is entitled Mad Hatter’s Box.

******

Who would be the last person you would invite to your birthday party?

Myself. To be an ideal guest, stay at home.

Who would be the first person you would invite to your birthday party?

HRL His Royal Lowness - Satan.

Favourite saying?

Act like a pig, feel like a God.

Favourite record?

Appetite for destruction - Guns N' Roses.

Favourite book?

Dandy in the Underworld. I express in prose of incomparable grandeur thought of an unparalleled brilliance.

Favourite film?

Any film, even the worst, is better than real life.

Favourite author?

Am I the best author of my time? I'd say I was in the top one.

Favourite actor / actress?

None. An actor is a man who tries to be everything but himself. A ghost looking for a body to inhabit.

Favourite musician?

Marc Bolan. He had one foot in heaven, the other in Woolworth's.

Most embarrassing moment of your life?

Being born.

Favourite food/drink/stimulant?

I like to be woken every morning with stimulants in order that I may drift through the day on sedatives.

TV programme?

None. Television is an idiot lantern. Don’t you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There’s one called “Brightness” but it doesn’t work.

Favourite TV personality?

TV personality is an oxymoron. Like the witty woman or the happy Horsley. God forgive us for putting two such words together.

Favourite item of clothing?

At the moment I am swanning sexily around in a haze of self-adoration and a shimmering red sequin suit.

Most desirable date?

The advantage of poor vision is that you can date anybody.

Favourite method of relaxation?

I like to go off to the brothel to get a good housemaids wank.

If you weren't pursuing your present career, what other career might you have chosen?

I have never had a career - but I think I would do a splendid job as one of the handsomest men in the world.

Biggest thrill?

Collecting Gloriana. What’s that? My own press cuttings.

Biggest disappointment?

I have such a strong sense of the disappointingness of existence and the even more mortifying inadequacy of the illusions with which we distract ourselves.

Your concept of Heaven?

Hell. Hell is the red-light district of Heaven.

Your concept of Hell?

Heaven. Heaven is the bourgeois district of Hell

What would be your dying words?

"If this is dying, I don’t think much of it. For the amount of publicity its got its a bit of an anti-climax."

Greatest ambition?

To rest on my laurels, until they become wreaths.

Period of history you'd most like to have lived in and why?

The Regency. Whatever happened to the good old days when children worked in factories?

If you weren't a human being which animal would you have chosen to be?

Any animal that was delicious and fitted well.

If you were told that the world was ending tomorrow morning, how would you react/what would you do?

Celebrate. I eagerly await the end of the world as the ideal solution to all of its ills.

Your nominee for the world's best-dressed person?

Myself. I always dress well beyond the call of beauty.

Favourite term of abuse?

Showing off. It is the only sure bait when you angle for abuse.

Biggest fear?

None. When you're fallen you fear no fall.

Humanity's most useful invention?

Me. I am someone who could not have been invented if the whole world had sat up all night.

Humanity's most useless invention?

Me. I am intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.

THE SCARLET HARLOT

I have just published this piece in a woman porno magazine called Scarlet :

******

I keep reading that practically everyone on the planet is a dandy and it most annoying. We can’t all be stars because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as I go by.

So what is dandyism? Dandyism is a form of self-worship which dispenses with the need to find happiness from others - especially women. It is a condition rather than a profession. It is a defence against suffering and a celebration of life. It is not fashion; it is not wealth; it is not learning; it is not beauty. It is a shield and a sword and a crown - all pulled out of the dressing up box in the attic of the imagination.

Wilde and Brummell are usually held up as the progenitors of dandyism but neither of these men were dandies in my not very humble opinion. Mr Brummell was aspirational and no real dandy is aspirational. As for Wilde? What a phoney he was! And not even a real phoney! He bred for a start, and no dandy worth the name breeds. He must defeat the species role of his body at all costs. The only place a dandy would push a pram is into The Thames.

This misrepresentation continues in modern times. The idea that David Beckham is a dandy is absurd. Dandyism is social, human and intellectual. It is not a suit of clothes walking about by itself. If Mr Beckham’s IQ had been two points lower he’d have been a tree somewhere.

Russell Brand is called a dandy. I suspect he is in costume. He practices Yoga, vegetarianism and other diseases of the soul. Hare Krishna? A real dandy is more Hari Kari. He fucks Miss Moss. A real dandy would tell Miss Moss to fuck herself. Worse, he recently did Earth Aid! This is unforgivable. The dandy remains deaf to the call of social justice. The depletion of his hairspray is more important to him than the depletion of the ozone layer. Convictions are for dullards, whose earnestness - the worst crime in the dandy’s book - is there to be mocked. As for human rights? Quite obviously he couldn’t give a toss ; he could hardly manage to be interested in the rights of his cock.

Tracey Emin has been called a dandy! The idea that a woman can be a dandy is preposterous. There are no female dandies for the same reason that there is no female Mozart or Jack the Ripper. The key attribute of dandyism - detachment - cannot come from someone with womb. How can one possess style with some pissy farty stink-grub hanging off one’s blubber udder? Forget it, darling. Women are on this planet only as trumpets of our glory.

So who are the real dandies? Baudelaire, Quentin Crisp, Bunny Roger, Tintin, Marc Bolan, Johnny Rotten, Robin Dutt and me - not in order of importance, I hasten to add. All these dandies are roped together like mountaineers heading for the summit of beauty. You see my darlings, true dandyism is rebellious. The dandy is part warrior, part stargazer, part gambler, part crusader, part plunderer, part violator, part martyr. He is fit for the highest and the lowest society - and keeps out of it.

To be a dandy is to aspire to the sublime. Dandyism isn’t image encrusted with flourishes. It’s a way of stripping yourself down to your true self. You can only judge the style by the content and you can only reach the content through the style.

Dandies are a brotherhood of higher types. The true princes of the world. The true priests of the world. Like precious stones, their personalities derive their value from their scarcity. Fancy a fuck?

THE ONLY WAY TO SUCCEED IS TO MAKE PEOPLE HATE YOU. THAT WAY THEY REMEMBER YOU.

Here are the first two reviews of my book …

From The Sunday Times

August 19, 2007

Dandy in the Underworld: An Unauthorised Autobiography

By Sebastian Horsley. These memoirs offer the reader a consistently hilarious season in hell.

Reviewed by Christopher Hart

Sebastian Horsley is a dandy and artist manqué who was briefly famous a few years ago for getting himself crucified in the Philippines. “I’ve suffered for my art,” he forewarns us, “now it’s your turn.” A sexual and intellectual pessimist who lives “poised between Savile Row and Death Row”, or, more prosaically, between narcissism and boredom, he isn’t easy to comprehend. Maybe it has to do with seeing too much too young.

Certainly his upbringing was unorthodox. His mother tried to abort him but failed. “Had she known I would turn out like this she would have taken cyanide.” He was born in 1962, in Hull, “so appalled I couldn’t talk for two years”. The Horsleys were proprietors of the vast Northern Foods empire, and lived in a sprawling Yorkshire fortress. His father was “a drunk and a cripple”, his mother drunk and manic-depressive. She tried driving to the off-licence on a motorised lawn mower when her car keys were confiscated, and when her father died she ate his ashes sprinkled on her porridge. A family photo from little Sebastian’s early years shows his mother “on the floor face down in a pool of her own vomit. On the sofa sits Gogo [his granny], her wig awry, her lipstick skid-marked across her face. Next to her sits Father, his drink in one hand and his cock in the other. Home sweet home”.

Years later, his mother visited him in a clinic where he lay drying out from multiple class-A drug addiction. She sat by his side. “Have I failed you as a mother, Sylvester?” “It’s Sebastian, mother.” That one’s too good to be true, surely, as indeed may much of the book be. But the upside to this horrendous life, and Horsley’s preposterous defensive dandyism, is the humour. These memoirs offer the reader a consistently hilarious season in hell, even if some of the best jokes are stolen, unacknowledged, from sources as diverse as Dr Johnson and Sharon Stone. “I became a vegetarian not because I loved animals but because I hated plants.” “Artists are easy to get on with – if you’re fond of children.” And I shan’t forget his description of Will Self’s face resembling “a bag of genitals” in a hurry.

A sense of humour is also common sense in overdrive, and although Horsley the spiritual aristocrat would hate to think he possessed anything common, even sense, it often redeems him. He knows that taking a lot of drugs doesn’t make him a 21st-century Rimbaud – as Pete Doherty sadly doesn’t. Nor does the road of excess lead to the palace of wisdom. Crack made him sit “in a darkened room for six months watching Home and Away”. His fondness for prostitutes, on whom he reckons he has spent around £100,000, is on a par with the drugs: excessive, but uninteresting.

More original is his swimming with great white sharks; his affair with a Glaswegian gangster; and that crucifixion. He fell off his cross, but at least it hurt. He considered calling the subsequent photographic exhibition, “Is There a God or Am I Too Fat?” Jesus was crucified to save mankind, while Horsley was crucified to save his career. “In my opinion,” he reflects, “we both failed.”

There are moments when your bourgeois stomach turns. I would like to forget, but never will, the manner in which he and Hugo Guinness expressed their tendresse for each other with a cucumber and a lavatory bowl. But you can forgive him a lot, for having produced one of the funniest, strangest and most revolting memoirs ever written. A world without Horsleys would be almost as dull as Horsley already finds it.

******

THE 'ARTIST' WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED; DANDY IN THE UNDERWORLD: AN UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY

BY SEBASTIAN HORSLEY

20 August 2007

The Evening Standard

PETE CLARK

The warning - and dear reader, I should heed it well - comes in the subtitle: An unauthorised autobiography. In that small phrase may be contained all you need to know about Sebastian Horsley. There is a sense of self here, of course, but also of rebellion. It's as if even when writing about himself the man is not to be trusted. He might even kick against the traces of what it means to be him. You may also detect the faintest tendency towards the witticism, a Wildean compulsion to meddle with words until they squeal with your laughter. That is here too.

Should you wish to travel further into these dark waters - and, by the way, you'd be a fool to pay for this book because the light-fingered author certainly wouldn't - then prepare yourself for a journey into the dark soul of Sebastian Horsley, a man who has absolutely nothing to declare but his own lack of talent.

We begin with his childhood, which would have been perfect were it not for the fact that the silver spoon intended for his mouth somehow got stuck up his bottom. Father was a rich and contemptuous drunk, mother was a lackadaisical drunk. Sebastian grew up wanting to be a girl and worshipping Marc Bolan who was, needless to say, a reflection of himself, only perhaps not such a dab hand with the eyeliner.

You might say Sebastian had some adventures but the truth is he never travelled further than the edges of his own ego. This man is the ultimate vanity case. He is a self-proclaimed dandy, the type of fellow that thinks a loud suit will make a mark in a drab world. That the rest of the world looks at him and sees only a prat only adds to his sense of supreme worth.

The wittering on about clothes is just about bearable but patience comes to an end with the endless details of our hero's passion for getting off his head.

If there is anything more boring than reading about other people taking drugs, then I have yet to stumble upon it. Even Hunter S Thompson gave it a break once in a while.

Horsley's other great outlet for self-adoration is sex. He is essentially a wanker, as he freely admits, but there are some unfortunate couplings with other people so that a little self-loathing can be added to the mix. The passages involving Jimmy Boyle and Hugo Guinness should be avoided by anyone of a nervous disposition who has recently eaten solids. The passages involving various ladies should be avoided by anyone who has a fondness for the female sex.

The question that may enter the enquiring mind is this: what exactly is the point of Sebastian Horsley? The answer would seem to be that he is an artist who once had himself mildly crucified. I know nothing more about his work.

He is also, however, a tireless worker in the mines of aphorism. There is not a sentence in this book that has not been messed about with, extensively buffed and pored over. No amount of burnished blather can alter the fact that this is a book about someone who, au fond, does not like himself very much. Do him a favour and bin it.

 

******

Well I say!

Wilde said: “When the critics are divided the artist is at one.”

And of course he was right. For a man to be great opinion must be divided on that score.

It is vital that the artist pisses off the right people. If you make the right people hate you, then that will make those that like you, love you that much more intensely.

Besides, Not even Jesus was loved by everyone.

Mr Clarke’s attack wasn’t very well written except that one intriguing line. “He might even kick against the traces of what it means to be him." I like that and may steal it. It’s a Sebastian line.

The review doesn’t really mention the book. He doesn’t like what I represent. You see, I represent, he resents, the life beautiful. You see, my darlings I saw a picture of him …

But maybe he is right. If I read about myself I wouldn’t like me. I would be threatened by me. The only difference is : I would admit it.

Boo Hoo. I am a controversial figure : People either dislike me or hate me.

Of course, I wrote to him :

“A fly sir, may sting a stately Horsley and make him wince. But one is but an insect, the other a Horsley still.”

Good day, you little bald ugly potato face.”

Poor little man. Welcome to the English : A Puritanical, tyrannical, ungrateful, hateful race. He is the unpleasant face of that hateful race. This couch potato face reviews Television programmes for the Standard. He doesn’t even make Television programmes. He reviews them. And he reviews them only occasionally as the stand in for the talented Victor Lewis Smith. Beneath him, there is only a social void.

Poor little spud dud. You see, we all have our fantasies of flying. Life, for most of us, is a process of gradually shedding them. Feather by feather we shed until our wings are bald.

But some of us say : “Not me. Watch me now, I’m going to fly.”

And when we fly we remind others of their broken dreams and broken schemes ; rather than join us they will the fate of Icarus on us so as to console themselves in the fluid of their own failure.

What I love is the FRUSTRATION these so-called writers elicit when they meet someone airborne with sangfroid.  It is so easy to clip a bird’s wings.  No one quite knows how it flies. 

THE DEVIL IS A DANDY

Sebastian Horsley, the artist, was recently crucified in the Philippines.
The resulting images formed the basis for his most recent show. Dandy,
columnist for The Erotic Review and rake par excellence. Sebastian gives
Large an exclusive interview.



G: When you were little, how did you see yourself and how you related to
the world?

S: How did I see myself? Incessantly.

G: When did you first think you might be a dandy? Did you dress up as a boy?

S: Well that was my mother's influence. She used to alternate between an
incredibly glamorous movie star and a tramp. She led me into a life long exotic swoon from which I have never really recovered. When I was ten I saw Marc Bolan and that really did it and then I went through a phase of wearing my mother's clothes, women's clothes...

G: As one does...

S: But being a dandy is not a profession, it's a condition, something you
just can't help...

G: You mean a vocation?

S: No, a condition. It is both a response to suffering and a celebration of life.

G: A treatable condition?

S: Yes, clothes are the medication.

G: When did you have your first sexual experience and with whom?

S: Does Onan the Barbarian count? (masturbation)

G: No!

S: At 12 with an Indian woman who I fell in love with. We remained friends.
I still have the receipt.

G: What is the strangest sexual experience you've ever had?

S: Hmmn... (pause) Look, I'm not a fag, but I suppose the strangest have
been with men. I'd go for men (I don't any more), who were very dominant and potentially violent... that's what I liked. I liked to have my free will
taken from me.

G: What do you think of pigeonhole terms like gay, bi or straight? Are they
realistic?

S: I hate faggots. I take great pride in my prejudice. But these terms are
very limiting. After all, the difference between homosexuality and
heterosexuality is merely a couple of bottles of wine or one smoke of crack.

G: You've lived in Soho for a long time, why?

S: I like to be close to my sin. Also, In a beautiful area I would be superfluous. In an ugly one I am a narcotic. Originally I lived in Shepherd's Market but that went down hill when the prostitutes moved out, but Soho's gone down hill. Ten years ago, on a good night, you could get your throat cut. Now it's full of weave-your-own-yoghurt places, gay hairdressers and coffee bars. There's even a fucking health club. A heath club in Soho for Satan’s sake. That’s like having a brothel in a church.

G: What was your first experience with drugs?

S: Well, I never touched drugs until I was twelve. I remember stealing a friend's marijuana.

G: Do you see yourself continuing the noble tradition of the rake and if so
who are your heroes?

S: I am a peacock without a cause, a rebel without applause. I am also deaf to everything except applause. I would define myself as a Romantic Nihilist and yes, I am a dandy, but that all depends on how you define a dandy. Dandyism to me is not a suit of clothes. Clothes are the least important part of a dandy. Dandyism to me is a spiritual doctrine. It's a way of stripping
yourself of everything, except your true identity, so you can only judge the
style by the content but you can only reach the content through the style. And of course style is merely the outer skin of your ideas. I am actually wearing my thoughts, my attitudes to life.

G: What about your heroes?

S: I am a disciple of Satan and Satin. Actually, my first, as I think I said, was Marc Bolan and then Baudelaire got hold of me. (the decadent French poet of the 1890s) After that Arthur Rimbaud, Francis Bacon, Tintin, Quentin Crisp. Dandies are roped together like mountaineers heading to the summit of beauty. I looked into their mirrors and saw myself.

G: And Byron?

S: Well I don't know so much about Byron, but the way he lived his life...
it was so much more important than his work. You see pictures and books are only things but artists are people. And who else? Well, the Sex
Pistols and Johnny Rotten had a huge influence on me when I was about
fifteen and continue to do so in a way.

G: Do you think drugs influence art? It's often said that artists, poets and
composers take shed loads of drugs. Is this a romantic myth?

S: It's not only a romantic myth, it's nonsense. I don't know who's
responsible for it. Me probably. But this is the connection: - The
type of person who creates is often quite sensitive and that's why he
creates for the rest of us. But that sensitivity, if it's not checked, can
lead to your own destruction. It's not that you take drugs and that makes
you creative, it just doesn't work that way, and the idea of creating on
drugs is as preposterous a notion as the idea of driving a car when you're
drunk. I mean the whole point about being an artist is that he's supposed to
be more aware. The point of taking heroin is to make you forget your
leg's just been cut off. So the connection isn't that you take the drugs and
create, the connection is that the sort of person who is drawn to art is
also drawn to drugs. But I’m actually a drug addict with a painting problem if you must know.

G: What do you reckon is the most unusual cocktail of drugs you've ever
taken?

S: Are you saying my favourite? Or Unusual?

G: Whatever, when you used to.

S: What, like last night or something? No, I'm off now, but injecting, that
was the thing I really liked. The whole ritual, the way you become a
hermaphrodite - a vampire at your own veins. But my preference was speedballing, which is a combination of heroin and cocaine.

G: Heroin can keep you looking young I'm told.

S: Heroin preserves everything actually, except secrets.

G: When did you clean up and why?

S: You see I am no longer a practising drug addict. I'm perfect. I cleaned
up because I couldn't work. And because it was making me too happy. It's a very simple exchange for me personally. If I drink or take drugs I can't do anything else. I reduce the whole of life’s experience to one experience - the drugs. I have this obsession with freedom but drug taking is like placing yourself in another kind of prison. I will sit in this room, I won't answer the phone and the only people I see are my dealers and my hookers. I can't write, I can't paint and dandyism goes completely out the window. As a drug taker I end up fit only for the undertaker.

G: Do you expect to be revealed through your art or be concealed?

S: I live in terror of being understood. No question. That's part of
dandyism - give me a mask and I'll tell you the truth, which is curious.
You know a dandy is a liar who tells the truth. Why I get on people's
nerves, particularly the British, is firstly because I've got the airs and
graces of a genius and no talent and secondly because the dandy is just an exaggerated extension of us all. All dress is fancy dress, except our natural skins. And life is nothing but a game of dressing up and pretending. We all perform our lives - just look at doctors and lawyers - they think they're real people. So, in a way, dandyism is the lie that reveals the truth. And the truth is that we are what we pretend to be. I may be a phoney but at least I‘m a real phoney.

H: So what's your definition of a genius?

S: Someone who brings new meanings into the world. The whole point about
genius is it's very, very rare. Although now the term has gone to confetti. I read the other day that Morrissey is a genius. What does that make Mozart then? Double genius with chips?

G: And today everyone desires celebrity.

S: That's a totally different thing. I used to be a universe, but now I'm
only a star. Celebrity is a comedown, which is the curious thing, not that
I've got it, but the problem is it's a trap, another form of prison. How can you talk about the concept of freedom on the one hand which you willingly give it up with the other? If you are somebody who wants to break through things and find new meanings for yourself, how can you struggle through all these different layers of disapproval, hostility and convention only to arrive at another form of convention? Personally I’d rather be an anonymous star than a famous non-entity.

G: Penultimately Sebastian, what words would you choose to define yourself?

S: I'm a Romantic Nihilist. As Coleridge said, Romanticism is something
ever more about to be. I believe passionately in nothing. Life is utterly
futile, merely a spasm of brutality meaning absolutely nothing. Your life, my life, is utterly and completely pointless. Sorry to break it to you. But rather than making us depressed, it frees us to overact appallingly and bring drama, richness and texture into existence. A man should always be impeccably dressed for the firing squad you know. And give the order himself...

G: And finally... do you like animals at all?

S: Hate them all. I have enough dumb friends without getting a pet. Basically, animals should be delicious and fit well.