INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE WOLFSON
BY AUGUST HIGHLAND
INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE WOLFSON BY AUGUST HIGHLAND
August Highland:
Wayne, how many hours a day do you work and do you work every day?
Wayne Wolfson:
Some days I may just take notes. Other days I will write a few short stories or work on my newest novel. I am always "working" though 24/7 I may not be physically at my desk writing, but I look for sources of inspiration and stimulation to feed my creativity. I don't write down verbatim things I see or hear but I need to constantly keep the juices flowing, that's the real work, not the stories.
AH:
What do you like to do most when you are not working
WW:
I paint to relax, it sort of gets rid of the static which would be excess words in my stories. I would never say that I was "A writer and a painter" though, there are many people that work much harder at it (painting) than me. I also read a lot.
AH:
If you did not live in the us where would you like to live?
WW:
I am in Europe often. Paris is the city I constantly go back to and the one I will end up in.
AH:
Which filmaker do you admire the most?
WW:
Fellini is my favorite. Goddard is great, Kurosawa and Bergamn. I also really like this performance artist/video artist named Pipilotti Rist.
AH:
What kind of music do you listen to more than any other?
WW:
I Mainly listen to classical and jazz with a few eclectic things too (pink Martinis, Paris Combo, Grenadier) Mahler for classical, Thelonnious Monk and John Coltrane for jazz. Music is my main source of inspiration. Music shouldn't always demand that you lean forward in your chair and pay attention but all music should take you somewhere, some type of journey, There is a reason why thirty some odd years after the fact people still get the chills listening to John Coltranes's A Love Supreme whereas last years' "summer songs" already don't matter. Coltrane and Mahler's music manage to be both spiritual and intellectual. If more people spent time with it maybe there would be a higher percentage of worth while new (musical) artist emerging.
AH:
How would you characterize yourself; as an optimist or pessimist?
WW:
I would say I am a jaded realist. To be a wide eyed optimist seems foolish, but being an outright pessimist becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
AH:
If there was one thing you could change about the world what you want to change?
WW:
For everyone to do no harm, not even to be kind but more like to mind their own business.
AH:
What would you like to be reborn as - a writer or as something else?
WW:
It would be amazing to come back with full memory of a previous life. Maybe that's all deja vu is, little glimpses of a pattern repeating itself.
AH:
What are the names of writers and/or artists whose significance you think is overlooked and whom you think deserve more recognition for their work?
WW:
There is a band I go to see whenever I have the chance called Realistic. They are really good and definitely uncategorizable. Them and Grenadier and probably a lot more composers and musicians that should be bigger than they are, are out there. The problem is you can't slap an easy label on what they do and all the record contracts and promotional money go towards the pop "products" in their many guises. For writing there is a man who lived in Trieste named Italo Svevo. He learned English from a young James Joyce who used him as one of his characters in Ulyesues. His writing is very good but right now I believe there are only two of his books in print. It also seems very hard to get English translations of a lot of the French poets aside from the big three (Rimbaud,Verlaine and Baudlaire) H.P Tinker out of London will hopefully break big in the near future, I enjoy his work as well. I have no idea what the market is like over there though, so who knows.
If this was a movie I could now, for dramas' sake ride off on a horse or walk down a narrow street disappearing into the shadows. I will have to settle for giving a profound quote.
"Always be open to things, even if its only acknowledging appetite."
End
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