Dennis Hopper on Marilyn Monroe: Life is the Mending




Interview with Dennis Hopper
Conducted by James Grissom


Yes, she was trying, exhausting. Aren't we all? Aren't we all a little too demanding of life, our friends, ourselves? I think she was desperate to matter, to be important, to be a good friend, to rise above the demons of her life, most of which are unknown to people and most of which would have destroyed most of us. I think she wanted someone to love her without fucking her--metaphorically or otherwise--and I think she wanted someone to listen to her, really hear her. Haven't I just described all of us? I know I've described myself.

And when the friends and the lovers don't show up who can provide these things for us, we manufacture friends out of pills and drugs and booze and cars and motorcycles and money and art--possessions.

What is that great quote you sent me? From [Eugene] O'Neill? 'Man is born broken. Life is the mending. God's grace is glue.' Well, God's grace is provided by us, by the friends and the associates who travel, so briefly, on this planet.

Life is the fucking mending, and I want to live, don't you?


© 2014 James Grissom

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