Directing Herbert White: Poems

The debut poetry collection by the actor, director, and writer James FrancoI’m a nocturnal creature,And I’m here to cheat time.You can see time and exhaustionTaking pay from my face— In fifty yearsMy sleep will be death,I’ll go like the rest,But I’ll have played All the games and all the roles.     —from “Nocturnal” “There’s never been a book quite like this. Hollywood—fame, celebrity, the promise of becoming an artist—is the beast at its center. Franco knows it like Melville knows whaling. Hollywood in this book devours its young. Obsessed with myths about its own past, it can be survived only by finding a vantage point that is not Hollywood.