1 00:00:03,100 --> 00:00:07,517 - On a difficult topic, you dedicated the book to your mom and dad. 2 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:13,377 And in particular, you wrote, "To my father, who died while I was finishing the 3 00:00:13,460 --> 00:00:18,517 book." What have you learned about life from your dad? 4 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:24,760 - To show up. To be present. To go to work every day. To love 5 00:00:26,420 --> 00:00:32,700 creative things. He was a lawyer, but he was also a jazz musician, 6 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:39,420 and he did both to the best of his abilities. To value family as 7 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,080 more important than either of those things. He was a present guy, 8 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,957 I think. And, you know, he loved books, always loved books, always loved films, 9 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:58,040 loved music. He wasn't into video games, but liked that we were doing weird things. 10 00:00:58,980 --> 00:01:00,317 - Was he proud of you? 11 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:07,400 - Yeah, I think so. I hope so. He was, for a lawyer... 12 00:01:07,860 --> 00:01:13,857 He really venerated at some level, giving "the man" the 13 00:01:13,940 --> 00:01:18,060 finger. Like, whenever life goes crazy— 14 00:01:18,260 --> 00:01:22,037 he was always on the side of the underdog and the ridiculous. And I 15 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,977 think that, you know, he always wanted to answer 16 00:01:26,060 --> 00:01:29,897 people back, always give the silly comment. I certainly have taken 17 00:01:29,980 --> 00:01:33,660 that from him, to my detriment probably, but it makes life more fun. 18 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:37,617 He always would just say the obnoxious thing and just didn't give a fuck. 19 00:01:37,700 --> 00:01:42,037 And that was, I think that was probably quite inspiring. 20 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,157 - So you have a bit of that in you? 21 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:50,377 - Unfortunately so, yes. Not good at shutting up, not good at toeing the line. 22 00:01:50,460 --> 00:01:54,077 - I think I speak for most of human civilization that 23 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:58,057 fortunately you have that as part of who you 24 00:01:58,140 --> 00:02:01,040 are, because it comes through your stories. 25 00:02:01,580 --> 00:02:06,877 - I think it made school difficult. They sent me to this very formal school— 26 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:10,477 that was like, it might as well have been set in the 1870s, in the 27 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,417 1990s. And, but then, I always got in trouble 28 00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:18,437 just for... not doing anything that wrong, just answering teachers back 29 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:22,297 all of the time. I couldn't be quiet. 30 00:02:22,380 --> 00:02:27,120 - How often do you think about mortality? Are you personally afraid of death? 31 00:02:29,260 --> 00:02:36,260 - Well, my father passed away in May, so a lot more since then, obviously. I mean, I 32 00:02:40,180 --> 00:02:42,180 think about it a lot. Am I afraid of it? 33 00:02:43,380 --> 00:02:48,320 I don't know. Some days intensely and some days not at all. I would love to stay 34 00:02:49,500 --> 00:02:53,297 alive long enough to see my kids properly grow up and settled, of 35 00:02:53,380 --> 00:02:57,157 course, for them. Aside from that, some days I 36 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,057 feel, you know, spiritually connected to the universe and not afraid of 37 00:03:01,140 --> 00:03:03,640 death at all. And other days I feel like a sort of 38 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,617 random piece of good luck who's gonna get struck down by 39 00:03:08,700 --> 00:03:12,857 an angry fate and turn to nothingness, and that terrifies me. 40 00:03:12,940 --> 00:03:14,992 - What do you think about the nothingness? I mean, 41 00:03:15,075 --> 00:03:16,497 that- that in itself is terrifying. 42 00:03:16,580 --> 00:03:20,240 - Yeah, that is terrifying. I mean, I tend to, 43 00:03:21,580 --> 00:03:28,004 I tend to, you know, I've spent long periods of my life tormented by 44 00:03:28,087 --> 00:03:32,937 that stuff. The last few years, I tend to believe there is a purpose and a 45 00:03:33,020 --> 00:03:36,810 point to life, and that we have some kind of 46 00:03:37,420 --> 00:03:41,317 spiritual or soul-based existence. I'm not quite sure if it matters if there 47 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,477 is a God or not, we should probably live our lives the same way either way. 48 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,137 But I tend to think that, you know, there is a metaphysical 49 00:03:48,220 --> 00:03:52,037 purpose to life and part of the, that purpose is to, you know, 50 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,957 search for the purpose. But at other points you know, if you 51 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,590 read too much science, you get wrapped up in the nothingness of it all. 52 00:03:59,780 --> 00:04:03,577 - Also, there's a component to your brain. When talking about 53 00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:07,500 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, you said that you have been, by 54 00:04:07,620 --> 00:04:11,020 fortune, struck with a bit of a capacity for the 55 00:04:11,180 --> 00:04:14,820 grandiosity of feeling. So you feel the world deeply, sometimes 56 00:04:14,940 --> 00:04:18,697 romantic, sometimes overly romantic. You've said, I like this 57 00:04:18,780 --> 00:04:24,670 line, "Feelings may destroy you, but they're the best thing we have." So that 58 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:31,817 ability to feel the world, is that a gift or a curse for you? What do you think? 59 00:04:31,900 --> 00:04:34,832 - That's a really interesting question because it's obviously both. 60 00:04:34,915 --> 00:04:35,737 At times it's both, 61 00:04:35,820 --> 00:04:39,577 or at times it's one or the other. When things are going well, when you feel 62 00:04:39,660 --> 00:04:43,800 alive, when you feel like you're connected to things, when you're seeing 63 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:49,037 beauty in people and joy in experiences, of course it's 64 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,977 it's wonderful. When you're feeling like, you know, bereft and 65 00:04:53,060 --> 00:04:56,977 set adrift by the world and that you can't connect to it in some way and you're lost 66 00:04:57,060 --> 00:04:58,080 and abandoned by 67 00:04:59,740 --> 00:05:03,757 God or consciousness or fate or whatever it is, it's awful. You know, when I feel 68 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:04,673 like 69 00:05:06,060 --> 00:05:09,150 a dreadful hack, which is most of the time, you know, it's terrible. 70 00:05:09,233 --> 00:05:10,067 You'd rather not 71 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,884 be doing this rubbish. And then sometimes you're working creatively and it feels 72 00:05:12,967 --> 00:05:14,097 good and you feel like you're doing 73 00:05:14,180 --> 00:05:18,457 the right thing and it feels fantastic, but that's not very often. 74 00:05:18,540 --> 00:05:20,917 - Do you think it's possible to have one without the other? 75 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,920 - No. No, of course not. When I think about growing up to the extent that 76 00:05:26,020 --> 00:05:28,160 I am capable of growing up 77 00:05:29,340 --> 00:05:32,560 it is about accepting the bad with the good from any situation 78 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:38,760 or any aspect of myself. You know, going, "Okay, it's not perfect. I'm not perfect." 79 00:05:39,700 --> 00:05:43,117 - You said you often feel like a hack. Is that that 80 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:49,517 self-critical part of your brain, is that a feature or a bug? 81 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:53,435 - That's an, I think it's that new thing that we're gonna lean into, 82 00:05:53,518 --> 00:05:57,897 the bug feature. It's both, isn't it? I mean, it cannot lead... That 83 00:05:57,980 --> 00:06:01,917 self-critical brain, I think lots of people suffer from it, and I think 84 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,845 the internet is designed to induce, if you didn't have it before, 85 00:06:04,929 --> 00:06:09,920 you will have it after being online. It clearly can become a bug 86 00:06:10,740 --> 00:06:14,657 but it also can give you drive and a lack of complacency, 87 00:06:14,740 --> 00:06:16,340 so it can also become a feature. 88 00:06:17,380 --> 00:06:20,517 - I had a pretty intense argument with Paul Conti, who's a 89 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:27,600 legendary psychiatrist, student of the mind, about this. He worked with many 90 00:06:28,020 --> 00:06:31,597 famous creative people and he thinks that that negative 91 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,780 voice is not at all needed for creative 92 00:06:35,060 --> 00:06:38,900 genius. And I thought, "I know awfully a lot of 93 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:41,697 creative people that have that voice." 94 00:06:41,780 --> 00:06:48,377 - I'd rather not have it, but I certainly have lived with it this far. There's a 95 00:06:48,460 --> 00:06:52,137 danger that negativity... For me, that 96 00:06:52,220 --> 00:06:56,037 negativity and consciousness become the same thing, you know? Sometimes I 97 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:00,100 have to fight to not just be perpetually negative, 98 00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:03,824 and that can be part of the human struggle for lots of people and certainly has been 99 00:07:03,908 --> 00:07:07,900 for me. I think if you're trying to do, you know, good 100 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,957 stuff and you're reflective, inevitably, and, you know, 101 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,867 you live in this world of constant, constant criticisms by the 102 00:07:15,950 --> 00:07:19,747 internet. Of course, you know, everyone who ever puts something on the internet, 103 00:07:19,830 --> 00:07:23,327 be it a picture of themselves or any kind of work they've made or whatever it 104 00:07:23,410 --> 00:07:27,087 is, is going to get 50 good comments and one bad comment. Remember the bad 105 00:07:27,170 --> 00:07:30,857 comment. So that, and that, that becomes fuel for the negative voice. I don't know 106 00:07:30,940 --> 00:07:33,703 anyone that's strong enough not to. You know, we all, you know, 107 00:07:33,786 --> 00:07:37,037 at some level you should just measure that stuff in weight, not in quality. 108 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,647 But of course we just focus on the quality. 109 00:07:39,730 --> 00:07:41,714 - And I do think in general, as you get older, 110 00:07:41,797 --> 00:07:43,587 that's the real challenge for people. You 111 00:07:43,670 --> 00:07:47,467 can see the different trajectories people choose to take. But it's 112 00:07:47,550 --> 00:07:51,360 easy to slip into cynicism and negativity, into this, 113 00:07:51,570 --> 00:07:55,450 Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, 114 00:07:55,550 --> 00:07:59,407 nihilistic kind of worldview. I think the heroic action to 115 00:07:59,490 --> 00:08:04,053 take with time is to become more optimistic, to see more good. 116 00:08:04,136 --> 00:08:05,057 I think that- - I agree. 117 00:08:05,140 --> 00:08:11,490 - There's probably a hero's journey of being extremely self-critical at first, 118 00:08:12,330 --> 00:08:17,690 for the first, maybe half of your life or two-thirds, and then, 119 00:08:18,570 --> 00:08:22,447 while maintaining some self-critical aspects just so you stay 120 00:08:22,530 --> 00:08:26,327 humble, start to see the good in everything around 121 00:08:26,410 --> 00:08:30,207 you, in other people, in the world, and even maybe every once in a 122 00:08:30,290 --> 00:08:33,080 while on a weekend, in yourself. 123 00:08:33,470 --> 00:08:36,710 - I hope so. I mean, that's what I've been, I could not be more 124 00:08:36,810 --> 00:08:38,487 cynical. I think you put that beautifully. 125 00:08:38,570 --> 00:08:42,407 - Yeah. - I could not be more cynical than I was as a child. You know, I 126 00:08:42,490 --> 00:08:46,960 could not see goodness anywhere. I couldn't see, you know, I don't think 127 00:08:48,690 --> 00:08:52,487 late 1970s to early 1990s England was a great, 128 00:08:52,570 --> 00:08:55,987 was a place of great, you know, optimism and naiveté. It was 129 00:08:56,070 --> 00:08:59,947 brutal. And I was brutal, I was brutal within it. And I 130 00:09:00,030 --> 00:09:04,010 think I've become much more naive, 131 00:09:04,250 --> 00:09:07,427 and tried to become more innocent in some ways, and always try to 132 00:09:07,510 --> 00:09:11,890 see the flawed good in people. You know, I've tried to, or I've 133 00:09:12,950 --> 00:09:15,505 had to force myself to be like that because, you know, 134 00:09:15,588 --> 00:09:19,810 the other way is not fun, it's not nice. It's not nice to not be nice. 135 00:09:20,830 --> 00:09:24,327 - As a brief aside, you had a wonderful conversation with Ryan 136 00:09:24,410 --> 00:09:28,147 McCaffrey at LA Comic-Con. I've been a big fan of 137 00:09:28,230 --> 00:09:32,040 his for a long time. He writes amazing stuff at IGN and he has a great 138 00:09:32,130 --> 00:09:34,700 podcast. Everybody should go listen to it. I really enjoyed it. 139 00:09:34,783 --> 00:09:35,667 Plus I get to attend a 140 00:09:35,750 --> 00:09:39,567 Comic-Con and just be there in the audience. And like we were saying offline, 141 00:09:39,650 --> 00:09:43,607 the LA Comic-Con, it's the first Comic-Con I've been to, there's just all kinds of 142 00:09:43,690 --> 00:09:46,887 real genuine nerds, good-hearted- - Oh, it's fascinating. Yeah, brilliant. 143 00:09:46,970 --> 00:09:49,730 - It's just so much kindness and goodness 144 00:09:50,550 --> 00:09:54,267 and just simple joy in being a fan of a thing was there. 145 00:09:54,350 --> 00:09:55,647 - Yeah, which is what those things are all about. 146 00:09:55,730 --> 00:09:59,380 - Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about some of the greatest books of all time.