Artists Are A Lot Like Gangsters - Jocko and Russell Banks

Russell Banks stopped by for a brewski and told me about Jocko, a seedy character he used to hang out with when he was dreaming of becoming a writer. he met up with him again much later in life at a reading he gave close to where they used to hang out.

Anyway let Russ tell the rest: I asked Jocko why he'd hung around with all those poets and artists and musicians back then. "You were one scary dude, man," I said.

He said: "Yeah, well, artists are a lot like gangsters. They both know that the official version, the one everyone else believes, is a lie."

He was right about that, too.