that time eve babitz finished my sentences

unearthing an archive interview with the late, great, los angeles legend

hi from LA!! this will be my last trip for a little while as mark is heading back to london to work on star wars and therefore officially make me a star wars WAG, which is something i either need to stop telling people or get printed on a t-shirt.

seeing as i won’t be back for a minute, i was thinking about what i should do in town, and top of the list (next to watching the new long island serial killer documentary and loading up on underwear at LA apparel) is to visit to eve babitz, now residing at hollywood forever cemetery. as a reader of off brand and therefore a person of exceptional taste, you’ll no doubt already be familiar with eve (if you’re not, keep reading, as you’ll be rewarded with a gorgeous little intro to her in about 300 words time).

i fell in love with eve’s work back in 2018. i think about her every time i pass her alma mater hollywood high, with its portrait mural featuring the likes of cher, lana turner, and judy garland, and its mascot of rudolph valentino in 1921’s the sheikh looking out over the athletic field. eagle-eyed readers may have noticed her get a shout out in my last newsletter, on another LA legend, ed ruscha.

to the devastation of thought daughters everywhere, eve passed away in 2021, aged 78. so, in her honour, i wanted to share possibly my best commission of all time: when my friend liam hess asked if i’d be up for interviewing her for buffalo zine for its brilliant unfinished issue, where editors’ comments and retouch notes were intentionally left on the pages – like looking at a fashion magazine on the board before the final_final files get sent off to the printer (invariably late).

there was a catch, though: eve could only be reached by email – a type of interview writers dread. not to be deterred, i proposed another way of approaching the story in line with the theme of the issue: to have eve finish my sentences, filling in the blanks in some sort of act of writerly communion. i sent pages of prompts with a note to her agent that she could pick and choose her favourites – to my delighted surprise, she responded to almost every single one.

the resulting feature, which, to my knowledge has never graced the internet before, is something i deeply love. eve is my favourite kind of person, and my favourite kind of interview subject – a true personality, an original, whose wit shines through, even in a few words. (“I never finish… what I’m writing” – me too, girl, me too).

so, enjoy. and i’ll send eve your love.

From being slipped scotch under the family coffee table by Igor Stravinsky at 13, to playing chess naked with Marcel Duchamp, to watching the 1965 Watts Riots on television from a penthouse suite at the Chateau Marmont, writer EVE BABITZ has had a life that reads more like fiction. Rightfully belonging in the mythic canon of Los Angeles alongside the Fitzgeralds and the psychedelic, occultist filmmaker Kenneth Anger, Babitz is the anti-Joan Didion, a chronicler of LA with stories (and ex-boyfriends) Lana Del Rey could only dream of.

Her first book, Eve’s Hollywood, comprises a series of vignettes blending fiction and memoir, taking us from the corridors of Hollywood High to the Beverly Hills Hotel. It was released in 1974, after the cruel and unusual Manson murders put an end to the California of the ’60s, and ushered in a hangover decade of war, hostage-taking heiresses, and rockstars dead at 27. Where the sparrow-like Didion saw California as a wasteland of moral decay, the wilful Babitz (who once sent a letter to Joseph Heller describing herself as a “stacked 18-year-old blonde on Sunset Boulevard”—and “also a writer”) saw a garden of earthly delights, its fruit ripe for the picking.

Whether in essay collection Slow Days, Fast Company or the novel Sex and Rage (subhead: ‘Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time’), her work dazzles with vivid wit and seductive, carefree charm—as well as a sharp eye for the things that usually go unnoticed. But despite a cult following, it once almost slipped into near-total obscurity: out of print, and out of the spotlight it very much deserved. Recent reprintings and a biography, Hollywood’s Eve by Vanity Fair writer Lili Anolik, have brought Babitz closer to the acclaim she’s more than deserving of—so in the spirit of Eve’s snapshots of LA life, we sent her snippets of unfinished sentences to finish in her own inimitable style.

I’d like to tell everyone that I finally got the great NYTBR review. Most of them would be so happy! Maybe not!

I love it when everything works.

The perfect day in Los Angeles is the end of any day I get through it being grateful.

I think about my twenties and thirties more than anyone should.

I wish I had been taught how to be a Jazz singer.

A lesson I still have to learn is… patience, patience, patience. I have none!

The hardest lesson to learn… is that other people have a point of view.

I never finish… what I’m writing.

Being a woman means… being in control.

Hollywood was the best place I ever lived.

I wouldn’t be seen dead… in a hat with a veil.

I would trade cheap jewels for expensive ones.

The best thing I spent money on was… cocaine, no I didn’t mean that.

The worst thing I spent money on was… cocaine.

Never spend your own money on… anything.

I don’t believe in... regret.

packing my suitcase. follow me on ig @emmahopeall xoxo

I’m hopeful that… I can remain grateful. I know I say that all the time, but I mean it and sometimes it’s hard.

You should make sure to laugh while you still can.

The eighth wonder of the world is... happiness.

America… I love that I’m an American, but right now, the country makes me happy.*

I would leave Los Angeles... too late now for lots of reasons involving money and age. I‘d like to travel around the world with lots of Louis Vuitton trunks and someone to help me like a character in an Edith Wharton novel.

I’ll never forget the time… I saw the Showtime Lakers play.

Sex is good for… everything, including your mood.

I don’t regret… anything.

People assume that I... would be angry about the accident. I guess I was pissed off about it, but I’m so happy that I survived as well as I did that I don’t think about it much anymore. It was just something that happened.

The best Hollywood legend is… any legend that involves Marilyn Monroe.

Youth is only good for wasting.

Writing is… so fucking hard!

You should become a writer if… you can’t live without writing.

Youth...is overrated.

Youth...is underrated.

I never meant to… upset as many people as I have done, or maybe I did, I’m still not sure.

My books... make me very happy.

The truth about beauty is… it truly seen in the eye of the beholder and it does fade and in the end it doesn’t help anyone.

In high school, I... had an amazing time.

Having people on your side... is what really matters.

Los Angeles can… grind you down, or carry you on its shoulders, it all depends on you.

You should move to Hollywood if… you can afford it, have the stomach for it, can have some control over it.

You shouldn’t move to Hollywood if... you can’t.

The power of youth... well, yeah! It only lasts while you’re young and that’s tedious it should last forever.

Thanking God shouldn’t be underestimated.

What people don’t realise about life is that everything has a price tag on it.

If I’d bothered to think, I never would’ve done anything.

I would rather read all day than watch TV.

Never buy a woman... diamonds, she’ll expect them all the time.

The only place to die is where you are.

Everything changed when… I had my accident.

You can learn a lot about apples by eating them.

Nostalgia is… both lovely and dangerous.

If I could sing, I’d have been a rock star…not really…that’s harder than writing.

I would like to remain happy until I feel it’s... the end.

*note: this is Eve’s original quote, however the ‘but’ makes me think she meant to write unhappy. this was 2019, trump era v1. maybe i should have asked what she thought of him…