Stuff
Jeffrey Rotter Revealed
About Jeffrey Rotter
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What is your birthdate?:6/11
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Previous occupations:Among other things, I assembled modular furnishings for NORAD, cooked in countless restaurants (well, four), went to libraries dressed as Clifford the Big Red Dog, transcribed interviews for Jean Stein, played in a punk band with an 11-year-old, and wrote for magazines.
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Favorite job:Writing novels.
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High school and/or college:I went to the University of South Carolina undergrad and Hunter College for my MFA.
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. I am trying to get back to sleep.
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. I'm presently accepting submissions.
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. A two-bedroom apartment, my wife and kid. I’m starting on the next novel and the next one and the next one.
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. In dry socks.
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. My wife.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. I’m interested in attaining powers that, while not qualifying as “super,” are arguably “exceptional.” For instance: partial invisibility, the ability to shrink to three-quarters my normal size, or the dragonlike capacity for breathing fire, but only through my nose, and only enough to light a cigarette.
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. Whatever reflected virtues I get from my son.
- Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
- A. I'd like to sit quietly in a corner of the cave when the first human said the first word for love.
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. That nutrient powder that tastes like anything you can think of, whatever that's called.
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. That pure sine wave that sounds like any song you can think of, whatever that's called. Also, I like the Kinks.
On Books and Writing
- Q. How did you come to write Unknown Knowns?
- A. I wanted to pit a delusion against a widely accepted truth and see which one survived under scrutiny. The belief in an ancient undersea civilization, the policies of Donald Rumsfeld: which one is fantasy, and which is more dangerous? Plus, I wish I had man-gills.
