Jean Michel Basquiat was present while they were shooting the scenes in the apartment, sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag.
The final shot of the film is an homage to the final shot of Chantal Akerman's News from Home (1976).
The film's title is taken from a lyric in the song "My Boyfriend's Back", by The Angels; "If I were you, I'd take a permanent vacation". This part of the song minus the film's title can be heard on the radio of the car Allie is selling.
The book Allie gives Leila is "Maldoror and Poems" by Lautreamont (Penguin Classics 1978), one of the earliest surrealist stories.
Jim Jarmusch's directorial debut. He financed the film himself, using a bank loan he pretended was to buy a car and a cheque for his Louis B. Mayer scholarship which was mistakenly sent to him instead of his film school, which he dropped out of.