GF: What would you want God to say to you after you die?
PK: I'd want her to say, "Thank you for questioning authority."
GF: Can satire be destructive?
PK: Satire is similar to what Picasso said: "Art is a lie to reveal the truth." I read something in the news that makes my ego suddenly pop up. Like alchemy, I want to turn horror into humor. I am not negligible about horror. In the context of infinite time and space, it can then put horror in perspective.
GF: Discuss enemies of The Realist.
PK: When I was 9 years old, I had a crazy aunt who tried to murder me. Even though she treated me like an enemy, I knew that it was her problem not mine. I mean, it was my job to do something about it. I didn’t take it personally. Publishing The Realist I got many threats, but I realized that it had nothing to do with me. They were revealing things about themselves. Subscriptions kept growing because of word of mouth and, "Okay here's somebody that’s not afraid to attack these authority figures." So I look upon enemies as if I'm just the vehicle for their Rorschach Test.
GF: What books had an impact of you in early life?
PK: J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun, which really became my bible.
GF: Is perception reality?
PK: Perception isn’t reality, the concept itself. But it is reality for people. If they have a prejudice toward somebody of another race, it’s a perception. Yet it’s their reality. But in reality, they're their fellow humans. In 1950 they still had "colored only, white only" signs. Racism was really in action, and lynchings were going on. My first girlfriend had gone out what they called "a negro." I asked her, "Did he kiss you on the lips?" And as I heard myself say that, I was astounded that I would utter such a thing. You think you're relatively enlightened. You peel off that layer. The layers are endless. I felt awful about even saying it, but it was good that I did it because it caused me to apologize. I realized that I had internalized the racism of the culture.
GF: How do movies shape our behavior?
PK: I remember as a kid when I went to the movies, and saw Marlon Brando. I would walk out of the theater as if I were Brando. Guy Madison wore this jacket with the collar up. So I would imitate his style. They were role models. It was interesting in the 60s when men were letting their hair grow. Then the same lawyers and news anchors who made fun of us would start doing the same, longer sideburns with hair covering part of their ears and going down their neck. It is why artists always seem to be ahead of politicians. They don’t have to worry about being elected.
GF: How do you find peace of mind?
PK: I try to keep my perspective of mystery and infinity. I have fun with it. In the 40's, ventriloquist Charlie McCarthy played a city slicker with a top hat and monocle. His side kick dummy was Mortimer Snerd, a farm boy in overalls with freckles and buck teeth. Edgar said to Charlie, "What are you doing?" and Charlie said, "Nothing." And Mortimer said; "Well how do you know when you've finished?" The answer is the absurdity of existence. The beauty of it can overpower the ugliness and the injustice.
GF: What’s the healthiest cultural shift developing today?
PK: The legalization of marijuana. That affects other things that can change. Putting people in prison for smoking a little weed is the cornerstone of a police state. People can look the other way and say: "Well, it’s not good for him to smoke." But cigarettes are legal. So there’s a linear connection between putting someone behind bars for having pleasure that doesn’t harm anybody else. The other ones that are legal, like alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs, can have quite negative results. Even though they try to make lovely art out of the side effects with the voice-overs in prescription commercials, with beautiful visuals that take your mind away from the warnings. Putting people in prison for having pleasure or medicine is INSANE. That insanity, and lack of compassion ultimately extends to dropping bombs on strangers from drones on the other side of the world. That's the same lack of compassion and same looking the other way, and accepting the totally unfair and unjust.
GF: Utah Phillips said "Anarchy is making rules for yourself, not others."
PK: That’s a good one. I’ve known anarchists who live by the Golden Rule, not because they're following it but because they feel it. And I’ve known anarchists who are ego-maniacal. Utah, He passed away, instead of dying. (Laughs.)
GF: Is ambition based more on fear or more on joy?
PK: Ambition is fear you might not make it, but joy when you do! But I try to do something for its own merit. And then let that have a life of itself. One of the things that Nancy said as a little slogan once I really like: "process is product." When I was a kid, my best friend was the radio. Lionel Barrymore, as Dr. Kildare, was in a wheelchair in the movies. He had this radio show where he spoke in this kind of quivering voice with these little maxims like "When you stop growing old you're dead." Another really struck me: "Happiness is not a state you arrive at, it’s a train you are riding on." That became my philosophy. I didn’t need to go through a thick book by Sartre called Being and Nothingness. That summed it up. I wrote a little fable called Tales of Tongue Fu. The character had a little Jack-in-the-box. It sprung up holding a little sign saying: "IT IS NOW." And the other side of it said "AND THAT'S ALREADY GONE."
GF: What gives you the most optimism?
PK: That I took too much acid.
GF: If a statue was made in your honor, where would you want it displayed and what would it be It would of?
PK: It would be made of Titanium sitting on Abraham Lincoln's lap.
GF: How do you explain your longevity with your wife Nancy Cain ? (40 years plus)
PK: We trust each other. We have each other's interest in mine. With that awareness in mind, arguments aren’t necessarily fights. We have an argument once every year just to look human.
GF: Please tell me a weakness you’ve turned into a strength.
PK: I'm essentially a cripple, which is literally a weakness. Through the process, I’m trying to accept it, because I know I can’t change it. A friend of mine wants me to go to some kind of bodyworker, who has performed magic. I keep resisting it because I can’t imagine that my problem can be cured because it is incurable. A doctor told me: "Next you'll have a little scooter with a motor. Your insurance will cover it partly. And then you'll have a wheelchair!" He was giving me his view of evolution in a nutshell!