Fran Lebowitz - Interview magazine columnist - Interview

Interview, Oct, 1994 by Marc Balet

Every single thing has changed. What has been the most constant thing in my life? You know, Interview; there is still Interview. Now it bears as much resemblance to the old Interview as the Korean delicatessen does to Max's, but at least it's called the same thing. I still think of Interview as the kind of tiny magazine it was. So, in a certain way, I am always very surprised to see it in an airport or something. We could never have gotten Interview in an airport. No one knew what it was.

MB: We used to have to spell it to people.

FL: We never saw it anywhere, except in Max's or places like that. So the fact that it's everywhere, that you see people reading it on the shuttle to Boston, or worse, on the shuttle to Washington, just like every other magazine, is surprising to me. Because in the old days of Interview, if you saw someone reading it, you knew who that person was; you had an instant connection to that person. I don't think that that's the case now, any more than if you see people reading Vogue you'd know who they are.

The way that everything has changed is kind of remarkable. The rate of change has accelerated tremendously, and Interview has really changed as much. Now, if you're going to ask me do I think it will be here in another twenty-five years, I could say that I think it has much more chance than I do because it doesn't smoke as much. But certainly, if it is here in twenty-five more years, it will not have changed as much as it has changed in the first twenty-five years, because there simply isn't room in the world of human possibility for there to be that big a change. I don't think you can ever call me on this, because I'm not sure that we're going to be here. But Bonwit Teller may be back.