The Questionnaire: Mark Haskell Smith

By The QuestionnaireMarch 30, 2012

The Questionnaire: Mark Haskell Smith

 


How do you get up in the morning? 


Espresso with hot soy milk.


Do you succumb to nostalgia? 


Rarely.


Do you write long and cut, or short and backfill? 


I just write.


How do you feel about your Wikipedia entry? 


Happy to have one.


Lunch with any three people who ever lived; who do you invite?  


Joe Orton, Federico Fellini, Richard Brautigan


Best piece of advice you ever received? 


Don't be boring.


Have you ever been defeated by a genre?


Yes. Romance.


What country would you want to be exiled in?


Brazil.


What's your poison?


Cachaca.


Title of the book you're probably never going to write, but would kind of like to get around to?


100 Years of Disco


Do you require a high thread count?


Always.


Who reads you first?  


That is a secret.


Sexy and dangerous, or brilliant and kind? 


All of the above?


Does plot matter? 


No.


Does age matter?  


Too young and you can get into trouble with the law.


Do you prefer to write standing, or must you lie prone in a field of dandelions with a steno pad and a good pen? Or what? 


I sit in a big purple chair.


Is there a literary community? 


Absolutely.


What's the question or questions we should have asked, had we known?


Why do you write comedies?


 


 

LARB Contributor

The Questionnaire is, as her name suggests, a multifarious and mysterious interlocutor. Chameleon-like, her questions change their color as they approach each new interviewee.

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