During a phone interview, we got to know Max a little better. Do you think there's still a... Interview: Sex, booze and very ba
Do you think there's still a double standard whereby men can have sex with many different women and are considered heroes and gods and women are viewed as morally degraded? Is it possible for a woman to just hook-up?
Of course. Why not? I don't understand why women can't do the same types of things I do. ... I don't really see any issue or problem with a woman doing all the same things I do. ... I mean, I get all kinds of f---ing backlash because of the things I do. ... Any woman who does what I do will go through the same s---. They'll get some fans, some haters.
I've never had a critic ... ever confront me face to face or try to talk to me face to face. Usually the type of people who have the biggest issues with me are the type of people who don't have the balls or the conviction of their beliefs to test them by facing me head on. I'll sit down with anyone, anywhere, anytime and talk about any subject they want for as long as they f---ing want. ...
I have yet to see anyone systematically and intelligently criticize me in any way that I consider meaningful or heartfelt. The things people say are f---ing stupid like "his stuff is redundant" or "it's drunken frat boy fare" or whatever. People who say that s--- just haven't read the stuff or they perused one story and are just assuming. ...
I don't know how I've made it but I'm doing it. ... I can drink 10 nights in a row, and not just drink but get s---faced 10 nights in a row, and get up and do it again.
I think they're both the same- - the Austin road trip story. That weekend was so f---ing fun. It was actually a lot of fun to write. It was one of those weekends that everything hit the right way.
The general consensus is the (anal) sex story. You wouldn't believe how many times a day people ask me about that story. Have you ever found out how the girl got home? Is that story real? First of all, of course, I don't know how she f---ing got home; I would have written about it if I knew. And yes, the story is real, all my stories are real. ...
In your book there are some moments that you seem to feel guilt over. Are there any parts of the book you wish you hadn't written? Or you wished you'd left out?
No. I had all sorts of opportunities to change what was in that book. I've done s--- that I regret doing, yes. I don't regret writing about it. I don't try to make myself out to be anything. I just am who I am. Sometimes I'm just f---ing awesome and I pull off amazing s---. And sometimes I fail miserably and I write about that. Sometimes I'm a f---ing a--hole and I make a mistake and I write about that. I do my best to show myself as honestly and in a light that is as honest and bright and raw as possible.
It tops the list not because I identify with Ignatius Reilly at all. It tops my list because I think it's probably the finest work of fiction, especially comedic fiction, ever written. I think John Kennedy Toole is quite possibly the greatest writer that's ever lived.
His first two pieces “Neon Bible” and “Confederacy” both pretty much taught me how to write. When I read his stuff I get almost sad because it's like if you're a basketball player and you watch (Michael) Jordan play - you're awed but you're also kind of sad because you know you're never going to be that good. I read his stuff and, I'm a pretty good writer, but I'm never ever going to be anywhere near as good as him. Reading him and PJ O'Rourke are really the two people that taught me how to write.
It's a f---ing disaster. The guy could have created a body of work that would have unquestionably been probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, bodies of literature ever. Because people are f---ing stupid and because publishing back then sucked, and still does in a lot of ways, no one recognized his genius when he was alive. It's awful.
It's not about my civic message. My civic message is secondary and almost utterly irrelevant to that point. The point there that I was saying was that decentralized content distribution allows people to get their voice to other people without having to go through the mediums that corrupt it or change it or influence it. I can speak directly to my fans without having to go through an editor or a publisher or having to please advertisers or any of that sort of s---. It's not about my specific message. My specific message is not the point. The point is being able to speak directly to your fans without anything between you and them.
It's important because basically throughout the course of human history it's been difficult, if not impossible, to communicate to a large group of people. Once civilized society as we know it developed in order to communicate your ideas to a large group of people you had to use some sort of publishing method - be it TV, radio - I'm using publishing in the legal sense of the word, meaning that you broadcast your message. Before about 10 or 15 years ago, the only way to really publish anything of any note was to go through established media. You had to be on radio or TV or newspapers or magazines. The only way to get on that is to convince the people who run those things that you have something important to say and people should publish it.
Now the content distribution is decentralized - they no longer have control over the messages that people get. Now, instead of media serving the interests of a select cartel of people who run it, now media can serve the interests of the consumers. It's a huge fundamental shift in power. You can't overemphasize how important and how revolutionary this change is.
I don't want to act like I'm the f---ing hero leading the charge. I'm one soldier in this army, but I am in the army. There are plenty of people, everyone from Google down to me.
Everyone's doing different bits of it. There are 10,000 people doing 10,000 different things in this area. I'm just one person doing one thing but it's still part of the charge.
I really haven't gotten that up and running yet, but my goal for that is to basically become a new type of middleman. The middleman used to be mainstream media and publishing between the consumer and the artist. Mainstream media has become so bloated and insular.
That's why I put the site up. I was like “f--- these people, I know my s---'s good. I know people are going to like it, so I'm just going to go around them.” I basically had to almost carve a path through the jungle by myself. I had to learn Internet advertising. I had to learn how to program. I had to learn all this sort of s---.
What I want to do is use all the knowledge and experience I've accumulated building this mini Internet empire and help people. There are tons of people out there who have great stories to tell but they're not going to go through all the s--- I went through to get their stuff out there. I want to make it easier for them. I want to enable them to tell great stories and to get their voices heard without going through mainstream media to do it.
It's pretty funny - there's a story in the book called the “Vegas Story.” There's this scene in there where my buddy throws up in this diner and we blamed it on somebody else and whatever - it's a pretty good scene. I originally tried to write that scene up as fiction. It was like f---in' stupid. When I write it up as the truth it's much funnier and it just comes out better. Maybe I'm just not experienced enough as writer. I'm just not very good at writing fiction so I just don't really try.
I love Ali G. I think that dude is a f---ing comedic genius. Almost everything he does is up roariously funny. Of course I like Dave Chappelle - who doesn't like Dave Chappelle? I like Dane Cook - he's really funny. I like Maddox, he's just f---ing awesome. His book is f---ing awesome. It's going to blow up the world. The fact that my book hit the best-seller list is a pretty big shock, but his is gonna hit No. 1 and it's going to take the whole world by storm. It's f---ing awesome his book is.
Yes. No. Hold on. Those are two very different questions. I think 99 percent of my fans I like at least on some level. They're pretty cool. They're very respectful. There's definitely 1 percent that are f---ing freak shows that spook me or are annoying.
Would I hang out with them? That's a very different question. I don't like most people on earth to hang out with on a day-to-day basis. Just because I don't want to hang out with someone doesn't necessarily say anything bad about them. I'm not necessarily that enjoyable to hang out with myself.
Of course. That's part of nature. That's part of biology. No question, as you grow older you mature, you change a little bit. I'm not the same dude I was when I put this site up. I'm just not. That's just who I am. Any artist who tries to stay the same who tries to stay in one position, ultimately stagnates and dies. The whole point of being an artist is to grow and change and develop and expand your art. To stay the same is to stagnate and die.
All the time. The girl who was in the dog vomit story. I didn't tell her about that - the vomit. She read the book, she actually had my phone number, and she was pissed. She was not happy at all. It was pretty funny.
What knowledge do I have? I never went to class. I don't know anything about the legal system. People have finally stopped coming to me for advice because I don't know s---.
Right now, I couldn't do it. I mean, yes. I don't know. I don't know the answer. I'm wise enough now to know that I'm not stupid enough to think that I can predict the future. Do I definitely want a family? Yes. Do I definitely want a woman I care about? Yes, of course. Is it going to happen? I don't know. When will it happen? I don't know. I really don't know. Only fools and gods can predict the future.
This is cache, read story here