Regarding Susan Sontag Page #3

do what she wanted to do.

And you know, it's...that's

really all there is to it.

[Woman, as Sontag]

Je l'aime beaucoup is

more than je l'aime bien

but less than je l'aime.

I like Paris--stronger,

more reserved.

J'aime Paris.

I like Paris.

ZWERLING:
The end of '57,

she came to Paris

at Christmas from Oxford

and she stayed,

and we started living

together in a hotel.

WOMAN, AS SONTAG:

Harriet is beautiful,

relaxed, affectionate.

I, dizzy with passion and

need for her, am happy.

Good God, I am happy!

ZWERLING:

We gave a big party, and the

night before the big party,

we had a lesbian couple over

to visit, but we drank a lot

and we smoked a lot of grass

and things started getting

a little sexy, and Susan got

into it a little too much,

and I got very jealous and

punched her in the face.

The next day was our big party

with all the American ex-pats,

the Beats.

Ginsberg and Corso and all

those people were coming.

And Ginsberg came over

to me at one point.

Susan had this big

black-and-blue mark on her jaw.

And he said to me,

"Why'd you hit her?

She's younger and

prettier than you."

And I said, "That's why."

Ha! So...

I was, at that time,

the assistant,

to a director named

Pierre Kast.

Susan was having

money problems,

and I offered her a walk-on

in this film.

It's just so funny to think of

Sontag being in a New Wave film

since she's going to

go on to make New Wave film

something very, very

important in the U.S.

She is somebody who is

constantly being reborn.

I mean it wasn't just from

being in France or from making

love with Harriet.

She was constantly discovering

things and becoming

a new person.

And that's her kind of

essential avant-gardism.

You can either suspect it

or really, really admire it.

I see Paris as getting her

out of her marriage.

WOMAN, AS SONTAG:

The thought of going back to

my old life...it hardly seems

like a dilemma anymore.

I can't.

I won't.

Susan had her year

or whatever it was,

came home, and said,

"That's it."

It was not a really

pleasant divorce.

WOMAN:
College at 15.

Marriage at 17?

SONTAG:
Yes.

A child at...

Yeah.

These numbers

suggest what?

Eagerness to grow up.

I hated being a child.

I couldn't do what

I wanted to do.

I wanted to stay up

all night.

I wanted to see the world.

I wanted to

talk to people.

I wanted to meet people who

were interested in what

I was interested in.

My parents lived abroad.

They lived in China.

My father was a

businessman in China.

They came back to the

United States for my birth

and for that of my

younger sister.

Then they left us with

various relatives.

WOMAN, AS SONTAG:

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