An Itch for More : Writing fiction has been an all-consuming passion for legendary musician Artie Shaw.

Nobody ever accused legendary clarinetist and bandleader Artie Shaw of being easy. He’s been called opinionated, dogged--and even a genius. But those attending a series of free public lectures will find him anything but dull.

As part of Cal Lutheran University’s Humanities Colloquium, the 82-year-old musician and writer will present two different lectures on the topic “The Problems of the Artist in a Material Society.” But judging from a recent conversation, Shaw, I predict, can be counted on to ricochet--like a pinball--from one topic to another--from music to literature to quantum physics.

Shaw is an expert on the disillusionment of being a creative artist in a material society. Possessing a sharp mind and a sharper wit, he often speaks of himself as “playing three chords for beauty and one to pay the rent.”

Schoolmates in New York knew him as Arthur Arshawsky. At age 15, he contrived to get expelled from school so he could tour with a band as a saxophone and clarinet player. From then on, Shaw described his life as a zig-zag. Several times he has lived in the goldfish bowl of celebrity and his ex-wives, who included actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, could be counted on more than one hand. Many times he has walked away from a lucrative musical career to write fiction--a pursuit he says he finds more suited to his temperament.

He hasn’t picked up the clarinet in 39 years. Instead, he penned a best-selling novel, “The Trouble With Cinderella,” and several well-reviewed volumes of short stories, including his most recent collection, “The Best of Intentions.” Currently, he is editing the first volume of a massive semi-autobiographical novel, “The Education of Albie Snow.”

During a recent interview in the book-lined study of his Newbury Park home, where he lives alone, Shaw discussed writing and the creative process.

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In Brigitte Berman’s bio-documentary film about you, Mel Torme called you a genius.

I don’t know what that means, but in school, it was terrible skipping grades. What do you do when you are the smallest kid in the class and they all hate your guts because you know all the answers and they don’t? It’s a curse--this thing called talent or being gifted. You’ve got a responsibility and a cursed thing called a curiosity and an itch to do things. It’s called in Latin cacoethes scribendi --an itch to write.

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What book are you working on now?

“The Education of Albie Snow.” There are certain, very definite parallels to my life, but it’s fiction.

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Have you found happiness in the writing?

I don’t know what happiness means. As I wrote in “Cinderella”: “Happiness is not a state like Rhode Island that you can drive into.” But I feel good when I write. I forget who I am; I lose myself.

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It sounds like you are a hamster on a wheel--always churning.

Yeah, it’s energy. Everybody has his pace. Mine seems to be frantic. I don’t sleep well. Today, I woke up with my head full of new fingerings for a piece of music I used to play years ago.

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Do you have a writing routine or do you wait for inspiration?

There is no such thing as inspiration. Inspiration happens if you keep doing something. The best aphorism about writing comes from (Guy) de Maupassant: “What is the best thing a writer can do? Put black on white.” Writing is rewriting. And eventually it gets abandoned. Somebody takes it away.

Writing is a totally lonely occupation with no feedback. Eventually you say: “Now I need somebody else to look at this and give me what I’ll never have again--a first look. I can’t tell what I’ve done here.” I’ve written some chapters 30 times.

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Are you a perfectionist?

Of course. But “the quest of perfection is the enemy of the good.” If something is good and you want it perfect, you’ll never see it.

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Is your book collection partly a love of the “book” itself?

This is not a collection; it’s just an accumulation. They gather like moss. You’ve got to read those works one at a time. (He reaches over and lifts a tome from the coffee table.) There’s one called “Mindfulness” I’ve been reading. This one’s called “Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs.” Here’s “Genetics and the Race of Man.” Here’s E. B. White’s letters. What’s the connection? I’m interested in anything. There’s no end. When are you going to know enough about something to say, “I know that one?” The answer is never.

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So what’s the point?

If you read everything you can and get as smart as you can, but then you die and lie there like a dog, that’s one sick joke. There has to be a purpose, or else it’s one bad shaggy dog story.

Because if natural selection and evolution account for everything, then there are things that mankind has accomplished such as Bach’s B minor Mass and the Acropolis that can’t be accounted for in evolution.

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Are these specifically the issues you are dealing with in your writing? If not, what are you trying to say?

I am giving my opinion; I am giving what I know.

Everything is terrible. Make it better. America is a mess. But so is the whole world. We’ve all paid a fearful price to come into the 20th Century. If I have a credo, it’s “leave it a little bit better than when you came here.” Even if you can’t do much. Blake said, “If you wish to do good, do so in minute particulars.”

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You’ve said that you were drawn back to writing continually during your life. Do you have any regrets about leaving school or how you ran your career?

I can’t think of one. It went the way it had to go. The only reason to look back is I won’t do that again. But you’re not going to do that again anyway.

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Some people do.

No. “Nobody steps in the same river twice.” Heraclitus said that.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Artie Shaw will present two different lectures on “The Problems of the Artist in a Material Society,” at 7:30 p.m. March 25 and April 1 in Nygreen 1 at Cal Lutheran University, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks. Admission is free.