Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, the Flesh, and L.A.

by Eve Babitz

Besides its being bad luck to even whisper that you’re happy, it’s also not nice basically.

“Tequila!” I said. I drank tequila in San Francisco to warm me up and in L.A. because it was appropriate.

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to have what I like or if my tastes are too various to be sustained by one of anything.

Early in life I discovered that the way to approach anything was to be introduced by the right person.

had a collection of lovers to keep me warm and my friendships with women, who always fascinated me by their wit, bravery, and resourcefulness, and who never told you the same story twice.

I mean, you can go places with a woman and come back just fine (or as my agent, Erica, plowed right in and said: “You know that when you have dinner with a girlfriend, you’re going to come home a whole human being”).

I also have nearly perfect teeth, which I believe is the real secret to the universe.

I loved it more than anything I’ve ever done before or since because deep down inside every woman is a waitress. The act of waitressing is a solace, it’s got everything you could ask for—confusion, panic, humility, and food.

Once it is established that you are you and everyone else is merely perfect, ordinarily factory-like perfect . . . you can wreak all the havoc you want.

There is something fascinating about a person’s face when they’re not falling apart because of their imperfections and self-loathing. Pleasure is a lure. When you’re smiling, the whole world would rather smile with you and have another watercress sandwich than ponder the universe with an ex-Beatle.

Because you don’t love things just because they’re beautifully designed; you appreciate them and go home. Maybe the reason I don’t get stuck on Italy is that I’m so jaded—that a girlhood beside the Pacific Ocean makes one accept perfection like arms and legs, without getting all tarred up. Simple tricks like rain are what get me.

Light, fitting easily into most purses, the humble paperback has saved a lot of relationships for me that would have ended in bloodshed.