Geoff Dyer is the author of four novels, including most recently Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, for which he was the recipient of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Best Comic Novel, and the GQ Writer of the Year Award. He is also author of several genre-defying titles, including But Beautiful and Out of Sheer Rage, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Below, he answers our In The Green Room Q&A.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. I haven’t spent a Saturday in London for ages now. But we just moved into a new house, so looking ahead to the ideal Saturdays that are coming up, I reckon I’d be at this lovely new café where I live. London is full of cappuccino places, but can you get a decent cappuccino? They’re hard to find. But there is one place near where I live, the cappuccinos there are great.
Q. What do you do to clear your mind?
A. Normally I would play tennis, but I’ve suffered this unfortunate wrist injury, so I haven’t played tennis now for about six months, which I suspect means my mind has not been clear for all of that time.
Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. There is nothing I want to do that I don’t got the nerve to do.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Today, I haven’t had a chance to listen to any. But generally I listen the whole time to The Necks, this great Australian trio.
Q. What do you wake up to in the mornings?
A. Nicely now, in our new place, we can sleep with the windows open so there is actually the sound of birds.
Q. When do you feel most creative?
A. About 15 years ago…. In a way when you’re involved with stuff like this it never occurs to you you’re being creative. It’s an outsider’s term in a way. That’s why I struggle with your question. It never feels like being creative, it just feels like getting on with my business.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Dude. All English people love the word dude. It is very difficult to say it without sounding like it’s in quotation marks if you’re English.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A footballer, in the sense of soccer player, like everyone does. I love everything about America, except for the way that by “football” is meant that dreadful game American football.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Utah.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. It’s probably a letter by D.H. Lawrence that I own. But I love all my possessions so much. I said the other day to my wife when I’d lost something, ‘I love my things more than I could ever love another human being,’ and I wasn’t entirely joking.
Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?
A. I love my habits. I’m a creature of deep habit. The last thing I gave up was sugar, that was about 15 years ago now or more. I don’t give things up now. I do moderate my drinking.
Q. Whose talent do you wish you had?
A. I envy the talent people have who can pick up a musical instrument quickly, and people who have a knack for languages. That’s a general envy rather than a wish for an individual’s talent.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. D.H. Lawrence.
To read about Dyer’s talk on experiencing art, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.