Interview with Nick Lake

Quick Start

SS: How would you describe your life in only 8 words?

NL: I would use the word "busy" eight times.

SS: What is your motto or maxim?

NL: To paraphrase the existentialists - life is what you make it. Which amounts to a practical kind of karma, I suppose.

What Readers want to know...

SS: How would you describe perfect happiness?

NL: A fire, a good chair and a new Stephen King book. Or the moment the soundchecks finish and the band take to the stage. Or sunset on the mountains, with weary feet, and the lights of a pub ahead. Or the sound of a breakbeat. Or a very sweet tea, anywhere in the middle east, at any time of day.

SS: What’s your greatest fear?

NL: Not being good.

SS: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?

NL: The main square in Esfehan, Iran, with the aforementioned glass of tea.

SS: With whom in history do you most identify?

NL: Er... someone who was a writer and an editor? I don't know. I don't think I identify with anyone.

SS: Which living person do you most admire?

NL: Haruki Murakami. Stephen King. Anyone who works for Medecins sans Frontieres or Amnesty International.

SS: What are your most overused words or phrases?

NL: "Apparently".

SS: If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?

NL: The abillity to play a musical instrument well. Also, the ability to speak all languages fluently.

SS: What is your greatest achievement?

NL: Meeting my wife.

SS: What’s your greatest flaw?

NL: Self-recrimination and low self-esteem.

SS: What’s your best quality?

NL: Self-recrimination and low self-esteem - they're unparalleled for giving a person drive.

SS: If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?

NL: I wouldn't mind being Simon Cowell. I could make the X-factor go away. Not to mention R&B flavoured pop music.

SS: What trait is most noticeable about you?

NL: I have no idea. My hair? It's usually quite big, because I keep forgetting to have it cut. I look like the freakish son of Tom Hanks and David Hasselhoff.

SS: Who is your favorite fictional hero?

NL: Sally Lockhart.

SS: Who is your favorite fictional villain?

NL: Steerpike. (Also hero.)

SS: If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?

NL: I'd like to meet Shakespeare and I'd ask him how to write better.

SS: What is your biggest pet peeve?

NL: People who drive waaaaay under the speed limit.

SS: What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?

NL: Reading? Actually probably sleeping, to be honest.

SS: What’s your fantasy profession?

NL: Bestselling and universally admired author.

SS: What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?

NL: Compassion. Empathy. Humour.

SS: If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?

NL: Chocolate, in any form.

SS: What are your 5 favorite songs?

NL: Hmmm. "Beat It"; "Here, There and Everywhere" by the Beatles; "U-Mass" by the Pixies; "Heartbeat" by Annie and "Etched Headplate" by Burial

Questions About Books and Writing

SS: Who are your favorite authors?

NL: Haruki Murakami. Stephen King. Neil Gaiman. Margaret Atwood. Joan Didion. Ismail Kadare. Philip Reeve. Philip Pullman. Meg Rosoff.

SS: What are your 5 favorite books of all time?

NL: Tough one. I guess... Middlemarch; Coraline; For Whom the Bell Tolls; the collected works of Shakespeare... and Little, Big, by John Crowley - the single most unfairly overlooked, beautiful, miraculous and magical book I know.

SS: Is there a book you love to reread?

NL: Little, Big, by John Crowley. The single most... oh, you know the rest.

SS: Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?

NL: I wouldn't presume to think of myself as someone anyone might look to for advice! But I suppose I'd tell them to read as much as possible, in as many genres as possible.

SS: What comment do you hear most often from your readers?

NL: "You're very... imaginative aren't you." I think they mean I'm strange.

General Questions

SS: What is your birthdate?

NL: 8/21

SS: What were your previous occupations?

NL: Student, and then book editor. Which I still am.

SS: What was/is your favorite job?

NL: Being a book editor. No one told me at school that there was a job where you got paid for being a fan of writers and writing.

SS: Where did you go to high school and/or college?

NL: I went to High School in Luxembourg, and I went to Oxford University after that for a degree and then a fairly pointless masters. In phonetics, of all things.

SS: Name of your favorite composer or music artist?

NL: The Pixies.

SS: What is your favorite movie?

NL: I usually lie and go for something clever like Vertigo. But really it's True Romance.

SS: What is your favorite television show?

NL: Right now? Deadwood.

Get more on Nick Lake at SimonandSchuster.com