Lot Essay
"David was living in the Chateau Marmont hotel and I came over one Sunday afternoon. He obtained a small stone and he drew me on the stone while I sort of sat around. Often if you sit for David it's a lengthy process which I was not eager to do, so for him just to do a head was agreeable for me. He played opera constantly and chattered away and it was really terrific. Not only does he do this drawing, but he is extraordinarily amusing while he's doing it. And of course there's this incredible curiosity that you have because you can't see what's being done until later. I saw he had put musical notes to one side; I guess because he was doodling and I think because the opera was playing, but I don't know. He printed it on a very long sheet of paper and he said, 'I signed it up here, so that if people want to cut it off, they can'" (Michael Crichton, quoted in I. Wasserman, 'Notes from An Interview', Selections from the Michael Crichton Collection, San Diego, 1980, p. 6).