Typewriter interview with Mark Haddon
10 questions for the writer and artist about influence, youth spies, and what makes the hours pass like minutes
Hey y’all,
Mark Haddon is a writer and artist best known for his bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. His latest book is Leaving Home, an illustrated memoir “about escaping a place that never felt like home and learning to create somewhere that does.” This typewriter interview was conducted via the magic of overseas mail. (For a plain-text version with links, see the P.S. below.)
![What do you do for exercise? Do you detect any mental, spiritual, or creative benefits? To stay sane I run in places with lots of trees and NO PEOPLE [I am] genetically 50% dog acceptable company [animals]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!iNbA!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff05b2533-4645-42c2-a2f6-894e54438be2_840x1088.jpeg "What do you do for exercise? Do you detect any mental, spiritual, or creative benefits? To stay sane I run in places with lots of trees and NO PEOPLE [I am] genetically 50% dog acceptable company [animals]")
![What's the most important piece of furniture you own? Tell us about it. [picture of a flat file and art supplies] Where it all happens I'm standing here right now](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!tIVE!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdabf6240-ee27-4484-a2da-86d16a660ff6_972x1453.heic "What's the most important piece of furniture you own? Tell us about it. [picture of a flat file and art supplies] Where it all happens I'm standing here right now")
![I "smoke" a cigarette pencil in the studio. Do you perform any silly rituals when you're working? No rituals, but writing is always best accompanied by a mug of Darjeeling 1st flush. [I am a] raging tea snob No milk!](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Gj5M!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2cad6120-f60b-42e2-9030-f9ea67628090_856x1093.jpeg "I \"smoke\" a cigarette pencil in the studio. Do you perform any silly rituals when you're working? No rituals, but writing is always best accompanied by a mug of Darjeeling 1st flush. [I am a] raging tea snob No milk!")
![What's your relationship to music? Do you sing or play an instrument? What song do you never get tired of? Play: viola (badly) guitar (ok-ish) [picture of Bach saying "What is this godforsaken racket?"] Listen* - Oren Ambarchi - The Necks - KEIJI HAINO - Autechre - Merzbow - BEN NOBUTO Imagine: when I play a tune in my head I still use recorder fingering, an instrument I last played at school c. 1970. * I forgot Sonic Youth](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4ELq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fed2b3b3a-37be-46fb-b03d-2801cedc1c8f_1198x1656.jpeg "What's your relationship to music? Do you sing or play an instrument? What song do you never get tired of? Play: viola (badly) guitar (ok-ish) [picture of Bach saying \"What is this godforsaken racket?\"] Listen* - Oren Ambarchi - The Necks - KEIJI HAINO - Autechre - Merzbow - BEN NOBUTO Imagine: when I play a tune in my head I still use recorder fingering, an instrument I last played at school c. 1970. * I forgot Sonic Youth")
Big thanks to Mark for being the 23rd participant in this series of typewriter interviews. If you liked this interview, check out his new memoir Leaving Home and follow him on Instagram.
And big thanks to paid subscribers who buy me the time to do all the email coordinating, typing, snail-mailing, scanning, transcribing, and editing that goes into these!
xoxo,
Austin
P.S. Here is a plain-text version of our interview with links:
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