gdata.io.handleScriptLoaded({"version":"1.0","encoding":"UTF-8","feed":{"xmlns":"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom","xmlns$openSearch":"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/","xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","xmlns$georss":"http://www.georss.org/georss","xmlns$thr":"http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0","xmlns$blogger":"http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008","id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971"},"updated":{"$t":"2024-04-04T08:04:19.829-07:00"},"category":[{"term":"photoshoots"},{"term":"dvd"},{"term":"bts:phantom"},{"term":"producing"},{"term":"outtakes"},{"term":"magazines"},{"term":"Kepler"},{"term":"books"},{"term":"goats"},{"term":"the craft reboot"},{"term":"x-files revival"},{"term":"x-files spoilers"},{"term":"2019 Music Tour"},{"term":"audio book °The Legend of Drizzt\""},{"term":"songs written by david duchovny"},{"term":"audio"},{"term":"the last full measure"},{"term":"Malice"},{"term":"You People"},{"term":"guitar"},{"term":"The Estate"},{"term":"comics"},{"term":"Louder Than Words"},{"term":"knicks"},{"term":"family"},{"term":"Twin Peaks"},{"term":"references"},{"term":"californication: season 3"},{"term":"californication"},{"term":"Aquarius: Season 1"},{"term":"promo"},{"term":"appearances"},{"term":"Aquarius: spoilers"},{"term":"bts:californication"},{"term":"hell or highwater"},{"term":"portraits"},{"term":"concerts"},{"term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"term":"charity"},{"term":"beautiful pain: music video"},{"term":"Bucky F*cking Dent"},{"term":"wohooooo"},{"term":"californication:season4"},{"term":"Adam The First"},{"term":"x-files"},{"term":"2017 Music Tour"},{"term":"2023 Music Tour"},{"term":"ad campaigns"},{"term":"third music album"},{"term":"movies"},{"term":"russian beer commercial"},{"term":"events"},{"term":"trailer"},{"term":"The X-Files 20th Anniversary"},{"term":"writer"},{"term":"Aquarius"},{"term":"Gestureland"},{"term":"interviews"},{"term":"West Duchovny"},{"term":"bts: Louder Than Words"},{"term":"photos"},{"term":"bts: The Craft"},{"term":"californication:season6"},{"term":"spoilers"},{"term":"new project"},{"term":"london comedy"},{"term":"monique"},{"term":"set"},{"term":"bts: xf revival"},{"term":"music album"},{"term":"directing"},{"term":"bts:Aquarius"},{"term":"news"},{"term":"poster"},{"term":"bts: The Estate"},{"term":"audio book"},{"term":"captures"},{"term":"californication:season5"},{"term":"transcript"},{"term":"Pet Sematary Prequel"},{"term":"download"},{"term":"gillian anderson"},{"term":"Holy Cow"},{"term":"phantom"},{"term":"redskins"},{"term":"david duchovny"},{"term":"californication:season1"},{"term":"netflix\nstreaming"},{"term":"second music album"},{"term":"bts: x-files revival"},{"term":"nyc"},{"term":"Aquarius: Season 2"},{"term":"x-files: season 11"},{"term":"photo"},{"term":"Miss Subways"},{"term":"podcast"},{"term":"blu-ray"},{"term":"the chair"},{"term":"What Happens Later"},{"term":"premieres"},{"term":"x-files: audiobook"},{"term":"bloopers"},{"term":"The Reservoir"},{"term":"The X-Files 25th Anniversary"},{"term":"californication:season7"},{"term":"The Bubble"},{"term":"californication: season 2"},{"term":"candids"},{"term":"behind the scenes"},{"term":"fanpics"},{"term":"TV Guide Magazine"},{"term":"video"},{"term":"The Craft"},{"term":"music"},{"term":"xf: iwtb"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Duchovny Central "},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"The most updated David Duchovny fan site and growing! "},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/-/Truly+Like+Lightning?alt\u003djson-in-script\u0026max-results\u003d30"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/-/Truly+Like+Lightning?alt\u003djson-in-script\u0026max-results\u003d30"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http://www.duchovnycentral.com/search/label/Truly%20Like%20Lightning"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"https://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"11"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"30"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-8255816077314284986"},"published":{"$t":"2022-11-28T18:34:00.005-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2022-11-28T18:54:02.094-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Kepler"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"family"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"x-files"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Estate"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Shondaland Interview: David Duchovny Is Just Getting Started"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eToday, Duchovny shows no signs of slowing down. This month alone, he’s promoting two very distinct projects. First up is The Estate, a dark comedy in which a family of truly terrible people (Duchovny, Toni Collette, Anna Faris, Ron Livingston, and Rosemarie DeWitt) attempt to win over their terminally ill aunt (Kathleen Turner) in the hopes of becoming beneficiaries to her wealth. In the film, which is in theaters now and on demand November 22, Duchovny plays Richard, a laid-back dimwit who expresses a creepy fondness for his cousin Macey (Collette).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eOn the other end of the spectrum is \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3VynTif\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eKepler\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, Duchovny’s first graphic novel, which comes out on December 27. Co-written with and illustrated by Phillip Sevy, the book is a Planet of the Apes-esque “allegorical thriller of environmental disaster, colonialism, religion, history, and adolescence,” according to the publisher. Or, as Duchovny describes it, “a human coming-of-age story with a different hominid.”\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" height\u003d\"267\" src\u003d\"https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-1669152363.jpg?resize\u003d640:*\" width\u003d\"400\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eShondaland recently had a wide-ranging conversation with Duchovny about these projects, his creative process, and why he refuses to cave to today’s “walking on eggshells” mentality.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eSANDRA EBEJER: 2015 was a big year for you. You released your first album, as well as your first novel. What was it about that time that sparked these personal creative projects?\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDAVID DUCHOVNY: I think a lot of it had to do with getting off of a couple of long-running shows. I was finishing things up around 2014, 2015 and was a little directionless coming off [the TV series] Aquarius. I had wanted that show to go for a couple more years, and it didn’t, so I was kind of reassessing. I guess I was in a bit of a holding pattern.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eI told myself that I had identified as a writer my whole life, much like my dad, who published his first novel when he was 73. It was just like, put up or shut up. And the music just came out of left field. The function of divorce [from Téa Leoni] was learning the guitar and soothing myself in a way. It was a new skill that came out of the disappointment and heartbreak of divorce. I’d say those two vectors, an emotional one and a career one, left me in an open space, and that would have been what contributed to a creative change in direction.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: Since that time, you’ve done so many different projects in acting, directing, producing, writing, and music. How do you decide what to dedicate your time to?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: That’s a really good question that I’m bad at answering. It’s a proclivity of mine to have split focus. I love collaborating, and I will set myself up in collaboration with different people along different spectrums of creativity. It’s easy enough to disappoint myself and not work on something, but it’s harder to have somebody else out there who’s like, “Hey, what are we doing on this?” That can be tough. Unless it’s a novel, I don’t like to be the sole driving force on something. I like to collaborate. I like to have ideas. In my fantasy world, I have a production company where a bunch of people are brilliantly executing my half-baked ideas but haven’t gotten there yet.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: What’s your creative process like as a writer? Do you write every day and see what comes from it? Or do you have a specific idea that you come up with and then follow?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: It’s idea driven. If I have an idea that I’ve interrogated long enough and thought, “Okay, it can withstand a novel treatment,” then at some point after doing some research — and when I say, “Doing some research,” I mean hiring a researcher [laughs] — I’ll start to write. I haven’t written in probably a year, so I don’t get up every morning to write. But when I am writing, I write almost obsessively and hard. I wake up early, and I write for a long time when I’m inspired.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: Both your father and grandfather were writers. Did they have any influence on your work?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: I never met my grandfather. I just learned about him when I did the DNA show [Finding Your Roots]. I was just flying [to L.A.] yesterday from Arkansas, and I was going over the stuff that I learned about my grandfather, so it’s interesting that you asked me that question now. He was constantly writing, it seemed. None of his stuff exists [anymore] because it was in Yiddish and wasn’t archived. Even the people at the Forward [news site], who’ve done a lot of research independently of that show, said that they hadn’t been able to find any of his actual writing, just references to it. But the references are plentiful, so he was busy. My dad was kind of anti-establishment. Even though he had a 9-to-5 job, I always felt like he was not quite in the accepted workaday world. I guess [he was] a bit of a rebel in his own mind, and that point of view influences me to this day. I’ve never felt part of the accepted interpretation of what’s going on out there.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: Were your parents still alive when The X-Files came about? Were they aware of your success?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: Yeah, my dad died in 2003. My mother just died a month and a half ago. My dad was perplexed. I didn’t grow up knowing any actors. We were not showbiz adjacent in any way. My mother was all about reading books, as was my dad. My dad had known that I was an academic, and he said he didn’t think that the kid that he knew — he left our family when I was 11 — was going to live a sheltered life in academia. The kid that he knew was more out in the world. So, that [aspect of my success] made sense to him, even though he didn’t care for movies, and he certainly didn’t care for TV. But he dug it, I think. He lived in Paris, so he would get letters from French fans of The X-Files, and he thought it was a kick.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: You have two very different projects out this month and in December. What attracted you to The Estate and the character Richard?\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: I’m always attracted to things that I think are funny, that hit my particular funny bone, and I felt this was in a genre I had never been in, which is a farcical dark comedy. It reminded me of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Dinner for Schmucks. Not that I missed that genre, but it’s certainly something that we haven’t seen in a few years just because we’ve kind of been walking on eggshells around each other. I saw clearly that [The Estate] was in a tradition of comedies of people acting badly, but it would seem very fresh because people haven’t been acting badly in film and television in the last three or four years. So, I thought, “Okay, it’s fun to kind of go against the current a little bit.” I have to say I’m really pleased with the results. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be, which is very rare in this business.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: As someone who entered the world of publishing fairly recently, do you struggle with that “walking on eggshells” mentality that we seem to have these days?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: I haven’t in terms of the novels. I refuse. I remember when [my 2018 novel] Miss Subways was coming out, I was kind of girding myself because it’s a female protagonist. I thought, “Is anybody going to say, ‘You have no right to write as a woman or to write a woman’s point of view’?” I didn’t get a lot of that, but I was actually welcoming the conversation because I feel strongly that it’s all within a writer’s purview. All the words, all the points of view, all the experiences are within a writer’s purview. It’s just a matter of whether you do it well or not.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThe dictum is always write what you know. Does that mean write what you’ve experienced? Or write what you know, and then interpolate it into another story, another consciousness, another thing? We’re all asking for empathy; that is the definition of empathy. I’m trying to write a woman’s consciousness. So, you could slap me and say, “How dare you?” Or you can love me and say, “Wonderful! We should all be trying to get outside our own experience and walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes.”\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: What was the inspiration behind your newest book, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3VynTif\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eKepler\u003c/a\u003e?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: It was inspired by that book Sapiens [by Yuval Noah Harari]. I was struck by the undocumented history of hominids and the fact that there were definitely smart, distinct, competitive, competing hominids aside from Homo sapiens on this planet at one point in our prerecorded history. I was like, what the f--k happened to them? We definitely killed them [laughs].\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eI’ve always loved Planet of the Apes. A formative moment in my childhood experience is when Charlton Heston comes across the Statue of Liberty. My mind was blown. I saw this chance to write a story that had a twist that was that big. I was like, I could do a jiujitsu reverse on that reveal and also write to what I thought was a fascinating unrecorded history of our planet. I thought I could — in the way that science fiction does, allegorically and almost heavy handedly — address these kinds of huge questions that we are addressing as a society right now.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: Were there any challenges to writing it as a graphic novel?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: When I have an idea, I’m thinking, “What is it? Is it a television show? Is it a movie? Is it a novel?” This was conceived of as a huge, expensive television show, and the hurdle was: What do [the Neanderthal characters] look like? Kepler wants to be an allegory for human experience. It has all the humor that our experience has, but I didn’t want it to be ridiculous right off the bat and have these goofy guys with beards and long hair and big forearms.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eWhat were the hurdles? They were really for Phillip [Sevy]. Like, can you make me a Neanderthal that isn’t laughable? Can you create a whole new race of hominids that is believable, that descended from this bonobo monkey? I have a species of hominid that is descended directly from a type of bonobo matriarchal monkey on the planet Kepler. I don’t know if you know much about [bonobos], but they’re our closest primate relative, along with the chimpanzee. They share, like, 99.5 percent DNA with us. And yet, they’re matriarchal, and they resolve conflicts with sex rather than violence. So, they’re super-different from chimps and from how we’ve evolved. We’re probably a mix of the two. We’re not as nasty as chimps, and yet we’re obviously not matriarchal. And we don’t appear to resolve most conflicts sexually or else we’d have a very different political system here.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: When you look back on your career and all the things you’ve done, do you see a through line to your work or a theme to the types of projects that you’re attracted to?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: I think humor would be one. To find that vein of absurdity or humor in anything I do is essential. To me, that’s the key to any character. I don’t know how I could play a character that was humorless because to me that’s an absence of humanity and I wouldn’t know how. Maybe the Neanderthals didn’t have a sense of humor, and that’s why they were doomed, not because they were slaughtered by us.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eA through line — it’s hard to say because at first I would have taken any job that anybody would give me. I started fairly late as an actor, so I needed to pay the rent, and I was running from this idea that I had jettisoned the entire career as an academic to chase this ephemeral thing. People ask me about my decisions — they weren’t decisions; they were like, “Yes.” [Laughs.] So, I don’t know what the through line would be. As I’ve gotten further on in my life and career, it’s about the process. You hear people say that, but it’s true: You have to let go of the result. These things are so collaborative, you never know what’s going to happen with them when the sausage finally gets made. So, it really has to be: Am I enjoying talking to this person about their project? Do I want to spend a couple of months [working with them]?\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: Are there any artistic projects you’d like to attempt?\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: I really want to make [my 2021 novel] \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3OJMtKY\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eTruly Like Lightning\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/a\u003e as a three-year limited series. I want to tell that story visually. I think it could be a powerful show. There are a couple ideas that I’m developing as television shows right now. One is about college basketball, and the other has a bit of a Neanderthal in it as well. I appear to be obsessed. I have limited amounts of ideas, so I’m going to milk them for all that I have.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cb\u003eSE: This is your Neanderthal phase.\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eDD: Yeah [laughs]. What sparked this creative period? Neanderthals. And cousins.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eThis interview has been edited for clarity and length.\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a42042254/david-duchovny-is-just-getting-started/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003esource\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/8255816077314284986/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2022/11/shondaland-interview-david-duchovny-is.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/8255816077314284986"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/8255816077314284986"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2022/11/shondaland-interview-david-duchovny-is.html","title":"Shondaland Interview: David Duchovny Is Just Getting Started"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-4082520446482181912"},"published":{"$t":"2021-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-02-14T08:40:01.458-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"David Duchovny: I Tackle Writer’s Block From Behind - Feb 2021"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDavid Duchovny is the author of four books, including Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale and Miss Subways; his new novel is Truly Like Lightning. He is a singer-songwriter, screenwriter, and director, as well as a television, stage, and screen actor, most known for playing FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series The X-Files, which earned him a Golden Globe award. He lives in New York and Los Angeles.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" height\u003d\"201\" src\u003d\"https://lithub.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/david_duchovny_screenshot_20200806151149_5_original_1150x645_cover.jpg\" width\u003d\"400\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLiterary Hub: Who do you most wish would read your book? (your boss, your childhood bully, Michelle Obama, etc.)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDavid Duchovny: I wish my father could read my books. He died before I published my first novel, and he himself published his first novel at the age of 73. He loved writing and respected writers most of all so I think we could sit and just be proud of each other, that we had joined the club. I think we’d search for tics of style that we shared, almost like literary DNA, that were somehow passed down from him to me, like eye color or height. I remember he critiqued a book report of mine back in fifth grade. I thought I’d written a masterpiece and he didn’t. I got so angry, but I think I felt ashamed that I had failed in the arena my dad most cared about. I like to think I’d accept his critiques with a little more equanimity now. Truth is—I would love to get any word from him now, any word at all. But I like to think he’d be proud, that he’d rub me on the top of my head and say, “well done.” And most of all, that he’d want to talk about it and that I made him laugh and cry and think.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLH: What time of day do you write?\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDD: I write from 4:30am to 8:30am; if it’s going well, I’ll keep going, but rarely past noon. When I’m in the middle of a book, I often wake up earlier and will start writing in the wee wee hours because my mind won’t let me go back to sleep. I like to write in the dark when the world is quiet and still asleep. I like to think I’m getting a jump on everyone else, that maybe I’m the only one in the world writing right now. It appeals to the Protestant work ethic my mother raised me in. I write fast and I write hard. After lunch, I’m pretty worthless. It’s like with the daylight hours, the magic time is gone. I revise at night. Writing and revision are different moods, different parts of the brain, different times of day.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLH: How do you tackle writers block?\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDD: I tackle writer’s block from behind.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLH: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDD: Best writing advice was couched in the best movie making advice I ever got. A director friend of mine came to a screening of something I’d directed and wrote and he said, “people go to the movies to care about something. They make plans, they make dates, they pay babysitters and leave their homes and get in their cars—all because they want to care about something. Your job is to give them something to care about in the first five minutes. Doesn’t have to be a big deal, could be anything—will the old lady make it across the street, will the kid get an A on his paper, will the alien get back home. Give them something to care about in the first few minutes or you’ll lose them and no matter what, you won’t be able to get them back. You broke the contract. They came out to care and you broke the contract.” I think it’s exactly the same for writers. Just substitute 20 pages for 5 minutes, give them something to care about right away.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eLH: What was the first book you fell in love with?\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDD: First book I ever loved was The Open Man: A Championship Diary by David DeBusschere—I loved the Knicks, I loved basketball, I loved DeBusschere. Nuff said.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374277745/ref\u003das_li_tl?ie\u003dUTF8\u0026amp;camp\u003d1789\u0026amp;creative\u003d9325\u0026amp;creativeASIN\u003d0374277745\u0026amp;linkCode\u003das2\u0026amp;tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\u0026amp;linkId\u003d4d37414684008b43c04a01e54d6dd243\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eTruly Like Lightning: A Novel\u003c/a\u003e\u0026nbsp;is out now.\u0026nbsp;\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374277745/ref\u003das_li_tl?ie\u003dUTF8\u0026amp;camp\u003d1789\u0026amp;creative\u003d9325\u0026amp;creativeASIN\u003d0374277745\u0026amp;linkCode\u003das2\u0026amp;tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\u0026amp;linkId\u003d7d0218d11045310ba284581e69c6c23e\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" src\u003d\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding\u003dUTF8\u0026amp;MarketPlace\u003dUS\u0026amp;ASIN\u003d0374277745\u0026amp;ServiceVersion\u003d20070822\u0026amp;ID\u003dAsinImage\u0026amp;WS\u003d1\u0026amp;Format\u003d_SL160_\u0026amp;tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/4082520446482181912/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/02/david-duchovny-i-tackle-writers-block.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/4082520446482181912"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/4082520446482181912"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/02/david-duchovny-i-tackle-writers-block.html","title":"David Duchovny: I Tackle Writer’s Block From Behind - Feb 2021"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-358071463043665438"},"published":{"$t":"2021-01-30T19:10:00.002-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-01-30T19:16:47.000-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"candids"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"video"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"David Duchovny Tested Positive for Coronavirus - January 2021"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny\u003c/b\u003e chats about his new novel, \u003cb\u003e\"Truly Like Lightning\"\u003c/b\u003e and testing positive for COVID-19 in November 2020.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhic1RGalqzZzq31THu4vdk7ePRNYGo0tk0GE2nrST242E-cLjYn-DUHYb62Zv7rhW5CpAAMD4oR8UvBLUGXoug52h-kkky-xmdBDMw3wy7hxr1kS9bwI7jq8tHwd5Uk6inzDndaG89TZA/s16000/POIGN.png\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eDavid Duchovny said he still has to figure out how he got the virus since he has been very careful.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\"Maybe I caught it in a taxi, in an Uber. Maybe just walking on the street. Who knows.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\"It was 10 or 11 days of feeling kind of crappy. And feeling the classic symptoms that people have come to know.\" Mr. Duchovny added, \"I feel really lucky that it didn't get worse than that.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003esource: \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/david-duchovny-talks-about-writing-fourth-novel-testing-positive-for-covid-19/vp-BB1dddQa\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eusatoday\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/358071463043665438/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/david-duchovny-test-positive-for.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/358071463043665438"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/358071463043665438"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/david-duchovny-test-positive-for.html","title":"David Duchovny Tested Positive for Coronavirus - January 2021"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhic1RGalqzZzq31THu4vdk7ePRNYGo0tk0GE2nrST242E-cLjYn-DUHYb62Zv7rhW5CpAAMD4oR8UvBLUGXoug52h-kkky-xmdBDMw3wy7hxr1kS9bwI7jq8tHwd5Uk6inzDndaG89TZA/s72-c/POIGN.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-1300088028552343769"},"published":{"$t":"2021-01-30T18:25:00.005-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-01-30T18:25:32.620-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"David Duchovny 'Truly Like Lightning' reveals its connection to ‘The X-Files’"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"When mysterious monoliths began appearing and disappearing around the world in November, it seemed a puzzle straight out of \u003cb\u003e\"The X-Files.\"\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eAnd lucky for fans of the hit sci-fi show, \u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny\u003c/b\u003e knows exactly how Fox Mulder would have handled the curious case.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" height\u003d\"213\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggY1sVQkAuZJFiikyMgkcmvUfVW7hQEEOemajOKa1zoT_Y3U71t3_ZRKVkjvo_AOV4-IIikVA6FiZB3gu34pfcjxiyEc4q5T-3CIEtUxf8bmEOi-98mpbsV22S3a60wLep5eI_0vvquX8/w400-h213/dchy.png\" width\u003d\"400\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"He would have figured out that it was the government, and it was real, it had special powers, and Scully would have had to get a piece of it and see that it was made from fibers that weren't from this Earth, and all this stuff,\" said the actor, who is gearing up to release his fourth novel, \u003cb\u003e\"Truly Like Lightning,\"\u003c/b\u003e on Tuesday. \"We could have had fun with it.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eOf course, Duchovny has his own thoughts.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"My feeling was, I wonder what practical joker put them out there,\" he said.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThough there are no aliens in Duchovny's latest novel, the actor said he got the idea for \"Truly Like Lightning\" when he was writing an \u003cb\u003e\"X-Files\"\u003c/b\u003e script 20 years ago. He was inspired by the real-life crime case of Mark Hofmann, who was convicted of forging documents and claiming they were from Mormonism founder Joseph Smith.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"He said that, when he forged in the hand of Joseph Smith, he didn't feel they were forgeries because he actually became Joseph Smith,\" Duchovny said. \"As an actor, I thought, 'Well, that's very interesting' because you hear actors talk like that. Like, 'I became this guy' or 'I became that guy.'\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe case stuck with the Golden Globe winner long after his \"X-Files\" days and planted the seed that would grow into \u003cb\u003e\"Truly Like Lightning.\"\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThe book follows Bronson Powers, a former Hollywood stuntman and converted Mormon living with his three wives and several children in the California desert. When a young developer stumbles on his property, Powers is manipulated into sending three of his adolescent kids – all of whom have been raised in isolation – to public school for a year.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThough polygamy \u003ca href\u003d\"https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/topic/polygamy\"\u003ehas been renounced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\u003c/a\u003e, \u003cb\u003eDuchovny\u003c/b\u003e said he used the taboo practice as a driver of his story.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"On the one hand, it's almost like a biblical kind of a Greek tragedy,\" Duchovny said. \"But on the other hand, it's also like a fish-out-of-water comedy in the middle of it, where you have these three children. They have a great education, a book education, out there in the desert, but they have no cultural education.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eAs the kids encounter the outside world for the first time, Powers sees the devout life he's built for his family begin to crumble. Despite living in modern times, his strict adherence to religious law ultimately puts him in a heartbreaking dilemma.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"Bronson Powers is a theocrat,\" Duchovny said. \"Bronson doesn't believe in that kind of cultural change of the law. He believes the law is the law. It's laid down a long time ago, and he's gonna live it.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eIt's a conflict Duchovny said resonates in a world where people can't seem to agree on right and wrong.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"In this country, you have a lot of that going on right now,\" he said. \"You have people that, on the one hand, are trying to will a cultural change, and there are people on the other side who are trying to maintain a kind of stasis of culture. And rather than arguing about culture, they are arguing about the law, and they are arguing about who really has access to God's will and God's mind and God's law. And I don't think either side does. That's not the point. That's the tragedy of it for me.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eWhile \"Truly Like Lightning\" speaks to big themes in a polarized world, it is also personal for Duchovny, who admits he has similar paternal worries as his complicated protagonist. Duchovny shares a 21-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son with his ex-wife, actress Téa Leoni.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"Every parent has that sense of, 'Did I do too much? Did I do enough? What did I do wrong? Did I protect them like they needed to be protected? Did I protect them too much?'\" Duchovny said. \"That's the hidden kind of dialogue that I was having with myself.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnother theme of the book\u003c/b\u003e is the desire to leave society – something \u003cb\u003eDuchovny\u003c/b\u003e said he and many others know all too well while living through the coronavirus pandemic.\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"The desire and the move that Bronson makes to take his family away... is something that so many people have felt in the last year,\" he said. \"Like, how do I get away from this contagious world? How do I protect my children? How do I protect myself? How do I not become infected by not only the virus, but in Bronson's case, the ideas, the way of thinking that has kind of led us to this place?\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eThough these concerns feel especially pertinent now, Duchovny said they've rung true for all time.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\"I think it's actually about timeless truths,\" he said. \"That's really what the book is concerned with. It's not concerned with political parties or impeachment or things that are happening today or even yesterday. It's concerned with truths that remain the same throughout time and people.\"\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003esource: \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/01/29/david-duchovny-reveals-how-his-new-novel-connected-the-x-files/6682034002/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eusatoday\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/1300088028552343769/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/david-duchovny-truly-like-lightning.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/1300088028552343769"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/1300088028552343769"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/david-duchovny-truly-like-lightning.html","title":"David Duchovny 'Truly Like Lightning' reveals its connection to ‘The X-Files’"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggY1sVQkAuZJFiikyMgkcmvUfVW7hQEEOemajOKa1zoT_Y3U71t3_ZRKVkjvo_AOV4-IIikVA6FiZB3gu34pfcjxiyEc4q5T-3CIEtUxf8bmEOi-98mpbsV22S3a60wLep5eI_0vvquX8/s72-w400-c-h213/dchy.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-1396616121475293584"},"published":{"$t":"2021-01-04T14:07:00.008-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2021-01-04T17:20:37.400-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"events"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"appearances"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"books"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Event: David Duchovny Talks About His Newest Book \"Truly Like Lightning\" - Feb 2021"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eDavid Duchovny and Jess Walter (The Cold Millions), are back together, this time to talk about the launch of Duchovny’s newest novel Truly Like Lightning, a meditation on family, religion, and environment set in the western California desert oasis near Joshua Tree. Duchovny will perform a portion of the novel, followed by a conversation between the two friends.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTivoFK0TKVdYbYSgMCYSr_-1z2dP9oS2_mHt9GqLPTJUwuhqqqMZ78Mpl2ogQP50M6d_TbwEAS6rAvTLH-2h9V9lMassqWM1X-OFUg7mRrUInSPTXMs5cJIPQEyRoEUNitCMUVfsnYo/s16000/duchy.png\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cb\u003eStory/Teller: Truly Like Lightning with David Duchovny and Jess Walter\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eOnline Event\u003cbr /\u003ePrice $30\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eIncludes a copy of Truly Like Lightning\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eTuesday, 7:30 pm EST\u003cbr /\u003eFebruary 2, 2021\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://centerforfiction.org/event/story-teller-truly-like-lightning-with-david-duchovny-and-jess-walter/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eGet tickets here\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003eOther David works include:\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cul style\u003d\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny - \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3ofCL53\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eTruly Like Lightning (Audio/Kindle)\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny - \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3nmHZLb\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eMiss Subways\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny -\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/2XgINpX\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eBucky F*cking Dent\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny -\u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3neZYDd\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e Holy Cow\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/1396616121475293584/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/event-david-duchovny-talks-about-his.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/1396616121475293584"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/1396616121475293584"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2021/01/event-david-duchovny-talks-about-his.html","title":"Event: David Duchovny Talks About His Newest Book \"Truly Like Lightning\" - Feb 2021"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTivoFK0TKVdYbYSgMCYSr_-1z2dP9oS2_mHt9GqLPTJUwuhqqqMZ78Mpl2ogQP50M6d_TbwEAS6rAvTLH-2h9V9lMassqWM1X-OFUg7mRrUInSPTXMs5cJIPQEyRoEUNitCMUVfsnYo/s72-c/duchy.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-8789109906485720471"},"published":{"$t":"2020-12-21T18:42:00.004-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-12-21T18:47:52.404-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"The Craft"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"New Interview: David Duchovny: “Its tough to have your own mind.” - December 2020"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny\u003c/b\u003e spends some time with Kyle Meredith to discuss his new single, Layin’ On the Tracks, and upcoming 3rd album, Gestureland. The X-Files legend tells us about being inspired by the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and how daily politics has been a fairly new part of his life, and how he’s finding his voice as a songwriter. Also NYT best-selling author, \u003cb\u003eDuchovny talks about his upcoming fourth novel, Truly Like Lightning\u003c/b\u003e, about a desert-dwelling Morman family and their resistance to the harms of the outside world, which he says he’s also pitched to Showtime to hopefully develop into a television show. After 3 years away from acting, Duchovny recently returned in \u003cb\u003eThe Craft: Legacy,\u003c/b\u003e and he tells us about that experience, what he did in the interim (including almost shooting an adaptation of Bucky F*cking Dent), and playing socially progressive characters throughout his career that include Twin Peaks, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Red Shoe Diaries, and The X-Files.\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003eYou can watch \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3pjd9Ex\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Craft Online here\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/a\u003e and read or listen to \u003ca href\u003d\"https://amzn.to/3h77GxH\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid's book here\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/a\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/div\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzEmeXHq1TSauVaVCFGxgQyH4UlQyhVkdrYEbyGPtIESzC7kngKV9JB9jyHcB1LYWrjk3FxEKd0ckj6Y4A9RIOcjiUJxUayHzZYFs2bFXpo4XTLUdEKuHz2E6v5QZEfdT0fcP8MBZ_mQ/s1200/david_duchovny.jpg\" style\u003d\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"675\" data-original-width\u003d\"1200\" height\u003d\"360\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzEmeXHq1TSauVaVCFGxgQyH4UlQyhVkdrYEbyGPtIESzC7kngKV9JB9jyHcB1LYWrjk3FxEKd0ckj6Y4A9RIOcjiUJxUayHzZYFs2bFXpo4XTLUdEKuHz2E6v5QZEfdT0fcP8MBZ_mQ/w640-h360/david_duchovny.jpg\" width\u003d\"640\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ciframe allow\u003d\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003d\"\" frameborder\u003d\"0\" height\u003d\"315\" src\u003d\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/oPEb-RmAjnQ\" width\u003d\"460\"\u003e\u003c/iframe\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003esoure:\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href\u003d\"https://wfpk.org/2020/david-duchovny-its-tough-to-have-your-own-mind/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003ewfpk\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/8789109906485720471/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/12/new-interview-david-duchovny-its-tough.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/8789109906485720471"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/8789109906485720471"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/12/new-interview-david-duchovny-its-tough.html","title":"New Interview: David Duchovny: “Its tough to have your own mind.” - December 2020"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzEmeXHq1TSauVaVCFGxgQyH4UlQyhVkdrYEbyGPtIESzC7kngKV9JB9jyHcB1LYWrjk3FxEKd0ckj6Y4A9RIOcjiUJxUayHzZYFs2bFXpo4XTLUdEKuHz2E6v5QZEfdT0fcP8MBZ_mQ/s72-w640-c-h360/david_duchovny.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-2152253784001322097"},"published":{"$t":"2020-10-12T13:35:00.005-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-10-21T14:41:07.168-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"David Duchovny. Pre-order TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv\u003eThe cover for the latest David Duchovny novel is out.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eYou can pre-order\u0026nbsp;\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374277745?tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003ehere: Truly Like Lightning\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCe3Z3uU9XrGnzCKkoNMqdQKfBRkQGKm29ui_G6q9oj6ZjghZa8wU49jOcdWnhJpuRQeNRwuqVm46Sh53yhYL18XRrXsSPm0g1jm2ulnRjVKgphr1WBZiQqmX6rHJx0nVpikMZXete-g/s843/120128678_2723120157910652_6982086181977586627_o.jpg\" style\u003d\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" target\u003d\"\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"843\" data-original-width\u003d\"843\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCe3Z3uU9XrGnzCKkoNMqdQKfBRkQGKm29ui_G6q9oj6ZjghZa8wU49jOcdWnhJpuRQeNRwuqVm46Sh53yhYL18XRrXsSPm0g1jm2ulnRjVKgphr1WBZiQqmX6rHJx0nVpikMZXete-g/s16000/120128678_2723120157910652_6982086181977586627_o.jpg\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003eDavid Duchovny:\u0026nbsp;\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\"I'm excited to reveal the cover for my upcoming novel, TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING, out February 2, 2021 from \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.facebook.com/fsgbooks/?__cft__[0]\u003dAZXfRj3oppzEL0dVBiwhKlUbM6kxeFXOMriw7rfZ9wearah4VqcruPZVqFP3c5BD5SqTXRgI8RKeRX45B_j7ykMYimlMO3VCVr7D3t5yUEZ8Vhvw4QT_mcxX2uL_Js5fde1EINaFVJyf8nMK3YQcSSix28wEmLFrGC6_Q72HQe5tu5We9-1KHQ3XN_CBbkI55uM\u0026amp;__tn__\u003dkK-R\"\u003eFarrar, Straus and Giroux\u003c/a\u003e. It’s an adventure that traces the epic roots of how we got here and how we might get out and how we make sense of right and wrong in a world of religious, political, personal, and historical extremes\"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr /\u003eYou can pre-order \u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374277745?tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003ehere: Truly Like Lightning\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/2152253784001322097/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/10/david-duchovny-pre-order-truly-like.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/2152253784001322097"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/2152253784001322097"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/10/david-duchovny-pre-order-truly-like.html","title":"David Duchovny. Pre-order TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCe3Z3uU9XrGnzCKkoNMqdQKfBRkQGKm29ui_G6q9oj6ZjghZa8wU49jOcdWnhJpuRQeNRwuqVm46Sh53yhYL18XRrXsSPm0g1jm2ulnRjVKgphr1WBZiQqmX6rHJx0nVpikMZXete-g/s72-c/120128678_2723120157910652_6982086181977586627_o.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-3712716702003134081"},"published":{"$t":"2020-05-21T10:25:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-05-21T10:36:23.275-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"writer"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Duchovny's New Book: 'Truly Like Lightning' out in February 2, 2021"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nFarrar, Straus \u0026amp; Giroux will publish David Duchovny's fourth novel.\u0026nbsp;TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING is an epic adventure that follows Bronson Powers, a former stuntman and Mormon, who has been homesteading outside of Joshua Tree with his 3 wives and 10 children. \u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374277745?tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003ePre-order now.\u003c/a\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"332\" data-original-width\u003d\"624\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NHbwD0jyIJDsV-KqXexUaVTnjODt5IQB4aD_Nf1zYgKH_gWVVHylBIhc1Gdlq1nFJ_LG7ZfoYYGBKd7wEqN8geujizxGq2ttBK9YvnNtmaXjvyi9CPrtV-SCc3EksT9syFS_3L6sG6A/s1600/tealeoniisstillinlove.png\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eFrom the New York Times–bestselling author David Duchovny, an epic adventure that asks how we make sense of right and wrong in a world of extremes\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003ePre-order: \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374277745?tag\u003dduchovnycentral-20\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eAmazon\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003eFarrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr /\u003eOn Sale: 02/02/2021\u003cbr /\u003eISBN: 9780374277741\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan style\u003d\"font-size: x-small;\"\u003e400 Pages\u003c/span\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\nFor the past twenty years, Bronson Powers, former Hollywood stuntman and converted Mormon, has been homesteading deep in the uninhabited desert outside Joshua Tree with his three wives and ten children. Bronson and his wives, Yalulah, Mary, and Jackie, have been raising their family away from the corruption and evil of the modern world. Their insular existence—controversial, difficult, but Edenic—is upended when the ambitious young developer Maya Abbadessa stumbles upon their land. Hoping to make a profit, she crafts a wager with the family that sets in motion a deadly chain of events.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\nMaya, threatening to report the family to social services, convinces them to enter three of their children into a nearby public school. Bronson and his wives agree that if Maya can prove that the kids do better in town than in their desert oasis, they will sell her a chunk of their priceless plot of land. Suddenly confronted with all the complications of the twenty-first century that they tried to keep out of their lives, the Powerses must reckon with their lifestyle as they try to save it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTruly Like Lightning, David Duchovny’s fourth novel, is a heartbreaking meditation on family, religion, sex, greed, human nature, and the vanishing environment of an ancient desert.\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\nsource: mcmillan\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/3712716702003134081/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/duchovnys-new-book-truly-like-lightning.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/3712716702003134081"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/3712716702003134081"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/duchovnys-new-book-truly-like-lightning.html","title":"Duchovny's New Book: 'Truly Like Lightning' out in February 2, 2021"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5NHbwD0jyIJDsV-KqXexUaVTnjODt5IQB4aD_Nf1zYgKH_gWVVHylBIhc1Gdlq1nFJ_LG7ZfoYYGBKd7wEqN8geujizxGq2ttBK9YvnNtmaXjvyi9CPrtV-SCc3EksT9syFS_3L6sG6A/s72-c/tealeoniisstillinlove.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-7017207583503867866"},"published":{"$t":"2020-05-14T10:11:00.000-07:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-05-14T10:25:41.526-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"new project"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"family"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"interviews"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"californication"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Interview: David Duchovny on the Climate Crisis, the Drawbacks of Technology, and the Craft of Writing"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThis is an extensive interview \u003cb\u003eDavid Duchovny\u003c/b\u003e did for \u003cb\u003eTimeSensitive.fm\u003c/b\u003e\u0026nbsp;- you can find the full audio below or read the transcript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"512\" data-original-width\u003d\"1052\" height\u003d\"193\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQTBxzzeDJABcInnR7v58StwSoDvsAD1VeRDkjufe05JMwcQ8Ibuer3r2ECAFrskNtvunyk7zLDv0TvLMLy2jfu43GRBw3HQmfpPXFQs4Ha1oM5VsDhjQyUQRBg1OYeuhyJq-3HpooW0/s400/sdwewewewee.png\" width\u003d\"400\" /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDavid Duchovny may be swooned over as the hunky special agent Fox William Mulder in\u003cb\u003e The X-Files\u003c/b\u003e and Hank Moody in \u003cb\u003eCalifornication\u003c/b\u003e, but it should be noted—and, in our opinion, more widely known—that he is also an accomplished novelist. Yes, novelist. In fact, he has published three novels with the highly esteemed publisher Farrar, Straus, and Giroux since 2015. \u003cspan style\u003d\"color: blue;\"\u003eA fourth novel, called \u003cb\u003eTruly Like Lightning\u003c/b\u003e and publicly revealed for the first time on this episode, is in the works.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nPrimarily known for his acting—which also includes a well-known, ahead-of-its-time role, in the early ’90s, as the trans FBI agent Denise Bryson on \u003cb\u003eTwin Peaks\u003c/b\u003e—Duchovny has carved out a name for himself as a screenwriter, director, producer, and musician, too. With an extensive literary pedigree—his father, Amram, was a “closet” writer until late in his life, when he published the novel Coney—Duchovny graduated with a B.A. in English from Princeton in 1982 and began (though never finished) a comparative literature Ph.D. at Yale.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nHis mastery across both dramatic and comedic acting, as well as his prolificity in writing and music, is impressive in its breadth and wide-ranging in its subject matter. Less than a decade ago, Duchovny began singing and playing guitar, and in 2015, nearly 30 years into his film and television career, he released his first album, \u003cb\u003eHell or Highwater\u003c/b\u003e. That same year, he also published his first novel, Holy Cow. Since then, he has released a second album, \u003cb\u003eEvery Third Thought\u003c/b\u003e (2018), and published two more books, \u003cb\u003eBucky F*cking Dent\u003c/b\u003e (2016) and \u003cb\u003eMiss Subways\u003c/b\u003e (2018). Now, at age 59, Duchovny’s creative energy continues apace across all these mediums—acting, writing, music—with his next novel soon to come out and plans to turn \u003cb\u003eBucky F*cking Dent\u003c/b\u003e into a film.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nOn this episode of Time Sensitive, Duchovny speaks with Spencer Bailey about novel writing, the need to better understand proposed solutions for the climate crisis, his role as Denise in Twin Peaks, and the various twists and turns of his multifaceted life and career.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eCHAPTERS\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.timesensitive.fm/episode/x-files-californication-david-duchovny-climate-crisis-technology-writing/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eListen HERE the full audio\u003c/a\u003e\u0026nbsp; | \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/transcript-david-duchovny-on-climate.html\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eRead the transcript here\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eI. Tech Ventures (17 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny looks back his Princeton and Yale theses, the latter of which was about the link between magic and technology in contemporary fiction. The conversation turns to personal technology, specifically the Sony Walkman, as well as electric vehicles and the climate crisis.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eII. Childhood Memories (11 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny recalls his upbringing in New York City as the son of a writer and activist father and schoolteacher mother, sharing he early interests in books, storytelling, and literature.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIII. Novel Desires (15 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny discusses his craft as a novelist, the making of his three books—Holy Cow (2015), Bucky F*cking Dent (2016), and Miss Subways (2018)—and a bit about his forthcoming novel, \u003cb\u003eTruly Like Lightning.\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eIV. Write, Camera, Action (7 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\n\u003c/b\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny and Bailey get into his acting career, which frequently has included roles as a writer, from his first acting job ever, in 1989’s New Year’s Day, to the more recent Hank Moody character in the Showtime series Californication.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eV. X-Files Marks the Spot (9 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\n\u003c/b\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny speaks about his role as special agent Fox William Mulder in the 1990s sci-fi hit The X-Files—a pivotal part of his acting career that changed the course of his life forever.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eVI. Trauma Recovery (7 minutes)\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDuchovny opens up about how he dealt with his daughter West’s childhood illness, from which she recovered, as well as the deaths of two close acting friends, Robin Williams and Anton Yelchin, both of whom were in his 2004 film House of D.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.timesensitive.fm/episode/x-files-californication-david-duchovny-climate-crisis-technology-writing/\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eListen HERE the full audio\u003c/a\u003e\u0026nbsp; |\u0026nbsp;\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/transcript-david-duchovny-on-climate.html\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003eRead the transcript here\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\nThis interview was recorded in The Slowdown’s New York City studio on July 30, 2019.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\nsource: timesensitive.fm\u003c/div\u003e\n"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/7017207583503867866/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/interview-david-duchovny-on-climate.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/7017207583503867866"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/7017207583503867866"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/interview-david-duchovny-on-climate.html","title":"Interview: David Duchovny on the Climate Crisis, the Drawbacks of Technology, and the Craft of Writing"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQTBxzzeDJABcInnR7v58StwSoDvsAD1VeRDkjufe05JMwcQ8Ibuer3r2ECAFrskNtvunyk7zLDv0TvLMLy2jfu43GRBw3HQmfpPXFQs4Ha1oM5VsDhjQyUQRBg1OYeuhyJq-3HpooW0/s72-c/sdwewewewee.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-2397076185901000220"},"published":{"$t":"2020-02-22T10:08:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-05-14T10:25:26.897-07:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"family"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"transcript"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"californication"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Transcript: David Duchovny on the Climate Crisis, the Drawbacks of Technology, and the Craft of Writing"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTime Sensitive\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nEpisode 21\u003c/div\u003e\nDavid Duchovny on the Climate Crisis, the Drawbacks of Technology, and the Craft of Writing\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eTRANSCRIPT\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ca href\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZXokiPiiXUEIjphzoGAFmbBsy_bHta9sOStCT2TmhQqno3fxzbCPMqqNj7ozaG6JzryV-4CGbBNv04AKSnF_Cma_NIFD_3RJHf43tSXkrEKM9ohyphenhyphenuZ8lRuafVwJSVvce4zXYLfooJ1Y/s1600/ddfdf.png\" imageanchor\u003d\"1\" style\u003d\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"512\" data-original-width\u003d\"1052\" height\u003d\"194\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZXokiPiiXUEIjphzoGAFmbBsy_bHta9sOStCT2TmhQqno3fxzbCPMqqNj7ozaG6JzryV-4CGbBNv04AKSnF_Cma_NIFD_3RJHf43tSXkrEKM9ohyphenhyphenuZ8lRuafVwJSVvce4zXYLfooJ1Y/s400/ddfdf.png\" width\u003d\"400\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\n\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eSPENCER BAILEY: Today on Time Sensitive, we’ve got actor, screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, musician, David Duchovny. Insanely prolific.\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eDAVID DUCHOVNY:\u003c/b\u003e Thank you.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I wanted to start this conversation on the subject of technology.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Something I know nothing about, perfect.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Well, it’s interesting, because I think it’s worth mentioning that you have a very literary background, in a way. A literary, academic background.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yes.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You graduated from Princeton in 1982, with a degree in English literature.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yup.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: In ’82, your poetry received an honorable mention from the Academy of American Poets.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, honorable mention.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: The title of your thesis actually, at Princeton—\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That’s the technology.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I had to bring it up—and then the one at Yale of course, too.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: At Princeton, your thesis was “The Schizophrenic Critique of Pure Reason in Beckett’s Early Novels.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, it’s a bit specialized, I understand. I wonder why that wasn’t a bestseller.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] You then broadened your scope a little bit with the later one that you didn’t end up finishing, but you earned your M.A. in English literature from Yale, and subsequently began a Ph.D. that remains unfinished. The title of your doctoral thesis is “Magic and Technology in Contemporary\u0026nbsp;Fiction and Poetry.” So that’s the technology connection.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yes, that’s what I figured.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: What were you trying to say in that particular thesis? What was your sort of—\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Well, again, I didn’t finish. And, as you might know, in any kind of literary or really any kind of artistic project, there’s the beginning inspiration, which is the thought, or the idea, or the something\u0026nbsp;you want to express. Then in the course of making, it becomes completely different. That’s kind of the fun and magic of making things. It’s never what you thought.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSo, I don’t have the luxury of telling you exactly what it would have been, because I didn’t do it. But I can tell you what I thought it was going to be. The overriding thesis or the inspiration for what was going to be a book-length book of criticism on James Merrill, the poet; Ishmael Reed, the novelist; Norman Mailer; Thomas Pynchon; and a Canadian author named Robertson Davies. So those were the five authors I was going to be addressing.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThe idea was to use the language of technology to discuss magic, and the language of magic to discuss technology. In magic, historically there seems to be fields of white and black magic, good and bad magic. But in technology, it’s always been, “If we can do it, let’s do it. If we can go to the moon, let’s go to the moon. If we can make a nuclear weapon, let’s make a nuclear weapon.” Unfortunately,\u0026nbsp;whenever a weapon is made, it gets used. There’s never been a weapon yet in the history of mankind that hasn’t been used.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nMy question was, why not pursue this line of inquiry through these authors, who seem to be discussing technology in a magical way. Maybe we should start to look at technology as magic, and therefore as white and black magic. If there’s good and bad magic, then we should address technology in that way, and not just as a neutral field of like, “Oh, we can do it—let’s do it.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Thirty years ahead of your time, it seems—or forty.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I wish I would have… Again, I wish I would have written it, but I didn’t.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think it’s worth bringing up the Arthur Clarke quote, where he says, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, sure. For me, I’m such a Luddite. I’m so bad with technology, a toaster blows me away still. I’m still at that level.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: In Miss Subways, which is your latest novel, the protagonist, Emer, actually has sort of a technology perspective when riding the subway. From her point of view it’s, “Every day down here was like a new Stanford experiment. Thanks be to Jobs for the iPhone, which seduced a good number of the underworld travelers into a zombified and harmless solipsistic reverie, though it also seemed to embolden others by adding a propulsive soundtrack to their passive ogling. It was as if they thought, like children, if they couldn’t hear you, then you couldn’t see them.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIs that based on personal experience? Have you felt that way on the subway or with technology?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I remember, I think it’s if they couldn’t hear you, they couldn’t see you.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right, exactly.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I remember having that thought—and this will date me—having that thought with the Walkman. I actually knew the son—he was at Princeton—the son of the chairman of RCA. He had this prototypical Walkman in 1982, and he said to me, “Hey, check this out. You can have your music with you. You can walk around with this little cassette recorder and a plastic case.” Then, of course, in the next couple of years, it became as ubiquitous as phones are now. But they’re gone, they’re a part of some fossil record. Nobody has a Walkman anymore.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI noticed that people seemed to feel like they were invisible when they had this thing on. That they had disappeared in some way, and that they were in a movie. They had a soundtrack just walking down the street. We see it now—it’s the same now with people with their headphones in. I don’t want to be moralistic about it, but it does separate people, and it also insulates people, I think, in a way…\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nWe used to have to listen to the radio, and then you’d be at the mercy of the DJ, and you’d have to hear songs that you didn’t know. But now I think people—and I’m totally guilty of this—I listen to music I know and I like all the time. I’m not forced out of my comfort zone, out of my own soundtrack, to listen.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right, the algorithm tells you what to like, or what you really like, and knows what you like.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, that’s the worst part. It’ll even send you music that’s similar to the music that you like. You’re never going to venture out of what you have decided is your jam.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] Exactly. We’ll get to Miss Subways in a little bit.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAppropriately, this morning, I’m riding the subway and I’m reading a recent issue of \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.newyorker.com/\"\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c/a\u003e. There’s an \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/was-the-automotive-era-a-terrible-mistake\"\u003earticle in there about technology and cars\u003c/a\u003e. Toward the end of it, there’s a paragraph that I wanted to read, because I think it’s very relevant in the context of this conversation.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: The author, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/nathan-heller\"\u003eNathan Heller\u003c/a\u003e, writes, “It is natural to think of innovation as a march of technical advances, each one finally paying the balance on a dream sold long before: the wheel, the cart, the carriage, the car. But the truth is that our technical capacities arrive too soon; from the imperial galleon to the atom bomb, it is hard to argue that the tools have struggled to keep up with us. A smarter futurism would focus less on pushing through advances and more on being sure we will use them wisely when they come.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That sounds like my thesis.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] I was reading it and I was like, “This actually does sound like your thesis.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah. Good luck—it’s just not going to happen. People like shiny new things, that’s the nature of it. We like to advance or to think that we’re advancing, and there’s no way you’re going to stop that kind of innovation, even if it just means repackaging stuff.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right. I understand you’re an enthusiast of \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle\"\u003eelectric vehicle\u003c/a\u003e technology, which that article actually talks about, it’s interesting.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Why electric vehicles? And what do you think that they can do to help make the world a better, healthier, cleaner place?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I started driving an electric car in, probably, I think like 2004, 2005. Maybe earlier, 2003, maybe a little later. It was a \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.toyota.com/\"\u003eToyota\u003c/a\u003e, a \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4\"\u003eRav4\u003c/a\u003e, and I believe they made four of them. For some reason, my ex-wife [\u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9a_Leoni\"\u003eTéa Leoni\u003c/a\u003e] had an in over at Toyota—a friend of her father’s—and I got to buy this electric vehicle.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: One of four in the world.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, which only got, like, 80 miles to the charge. It wasn’t at all practical, really. You couldn’t escape the apocalypse in that one. You could only get 80, and then you’d be done.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nBut I loved it. I lived in L.A. at the time. I rarely was called upon to drive more than 80 miles in a day, so I could just use it. I had solar panels on the house, so in my estimation, I was just recycling energy without any kind of carbon footprint or any kind of waste. That was early on, I was thinking about… I don’t think I thought about \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change\"\u003eclimate change\u003c/a\u003e, because that wasn’t really in the daily discourse, as it is now, but I was thinking about pollution. I was thinking about smog, in terms of\u0026nbsp;L.A. back then. I wasn’t emitting any carbons into the atmosphere.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: How has your sort of electric-vehicle driving evolved since the Rav4?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I have a \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.tesla.com/\"\u003eTesla\u003c/a\u003e on order. I live in New York; I don’t own a car here. In L.A., I don’t have a Tesla yet, because I don’t have a house where I can charge it. I’m building a house there, and when that’s done—in April, I think—I’ll get my Tesla, which I’m looking forward to. It’s a beautiful piece of machinery, I think.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You mentioned climate change. I know \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy\"\u003erenewable energy\u003c/a\u003e has been big—you’ve been an advocate/activist in that arena.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I even noticed you tweeted recently a story by \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wallace-Wells\"\u003eDavid Wallace-Wells\u003c/a\u003e, who wrote the book \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/9780525576709/\"\u003eThe Uninhabitable Earth\u003c/a\u003e, which is incredible.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I know you’ve also posted or shared things from \u003ca href\u003d\"http://billmckibben.com/\"\u003eBill McKibben\u003c/a\u003e, who is one of the original writers on climate change.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Sure.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Why or how did you start coming into thinking about renewable energy? Was it just the sort of mass conversation happening around it?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I don’t remember how, exactly. It was really through that archaic term “pollution” that we used to talk about, and the idea… Just realizing at some point, and having children, that this was going to be the earth that they inherited. It was more of a clean-up prospect when I started it. Like, “Let’s keep it clean. Let’s leave it the way we found it.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIt wasn’t what we know to be now, which is literally a matter of life and death for the planet. The stakes have changed, and the discussion has changed, and the intensity around the discussion has changed. The lines drawn on either side of it have changed, because it’s hard to ask people to sacrifice. People, they don’t want to do less than the generation before. If you just talk about technology as well, they don’t want to use less than the generation before.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIt’s always been expensive to be a conservationist. Therefore, you’re open to charges of elitism: “You’re wealthy enough to be a conservationist.“ Those are all legitimate, but still we’re stuck with this problem that we’ve got to solve.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Yeah, it’s a global trauma, really.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Right.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: How do you personally navigate this? Just sort of in terms of how you cope with it internally, whether it is climate change or some of these [other] issues.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: The thing that makes climate change so difficult to address is the same reason why I can let it go for days and weeks at a time. It’s not a pressing issue, psychologically, on a person in their day-to-day life. I could have gone last week without thinking about it, and here I am talking about it and getting, you know, depressed and anxious about it again.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Sorry to do that to you. [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"indent\" style\u003d\"background-color: #f5f5f4; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #004751; font-family: FaktPro, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.9722px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 1.11111vw; margin-left: 2.08333vw; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan style\u003d\"border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It’s just that conundrum. It’s so difficult to address, because first of all, yes, the science is in, but it’s not perfect science. Nobody can actually predict what’s going to happen. We can have scenarios…\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAlso, there are \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.history.com/topics/pre-history/ice-age\"\u003enatural ice ages\u003c/a\u003e and natural hotter ages for this planet that humans have nothing to do with. I’m a hundred-percent believer that we are responsible and we’re screwing it up, but also, I can’t say a hundred percent that the earth doesn’t have its own nature, and is going through its own hot flashes and cold flashes.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThere’s always going to be wiggle room on the other side for people to say, “Hell, there was an ice age; it’s going to come back. There’s nothing we can do about that. Let’s use this earth that God has supposedly given us. He’s given it to us to use.” I’m not a subscriber to that. I would say more [that] we have been given it to take care of or to be stewards of.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: We’ll get off climate change in a second. I have one last question connected to this idea of magic and technology. Obviously, most people know you—at least those of us who watched television in the nineties—as \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Mulder\"\u003eAgent [Fox] Mulder\u003c/a\u003e on \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files\"\u003eThe X-Files\u003c/a\u003e. The show is, of course, about extraterrestrials, and, to a certain extent, about magic and technology.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nYou’re living in that headspace of this character for so long. Did that get you thinking about magic and technology in these new ways?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: No, no. Again, it’s almost like those two parts of my brain didn’t really talk to one another. I had the job, as an actor, to do, and it was a great job. It was a lot of work just to stay on top of what you [had] to do, in terms of being a series lead on a show, as physically and verbally demanding as that [was]. Sometimes I’d just be memorizing signs, words—they didn’t even go deeply enough for me to even think about what I was saying, if you can imagine that.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI mean, obviously I’d been thinking about it before that, and I don’t think that I ever even made that connection. I had never been a fan of science fiction. I remember liking the movie Alien, that’s about it. I wasn’t a big Star Wars fan, I wasn’t a comic book guy. I had never made the connection between my thesis that never happened and the show.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI see it now, and it’s possible that there are no mistakes and you’re led places where you’re supposed to go, or where you lead yourself unconsciously, but I had never thought of it that way. As an actor, you’re working beneath the lines. You’re not working on what’s actually being said. You’re working on making it believable in a human way, not in an intellectual way. I didn’t address—I wouldn’t address—a specific script intellectually. I’d address it emotionally, or as an actor would. Therefore, those issues wouldn’t really arise to me.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right. Did that experience change how you think about science fiction? Comic books? Are you more into that world now?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: No, it didn’t. I’m amazed that Hollywood and much of filmed pop culture has been taken over by the kind of stuff that we did. I didn’t see that coming. I wasn’t an advocate for that. I just thought we were a good show, and that’s why we were doing well. It didn’t have to do with a change in what was going to be accepted in Hollywood.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nNow I look at the movies that Hollywood produces, not the independents, and they’re solidly, it seems to me, ninety percent science-fiction, comic-book type films. It completely caught me off-guard. I didn’t see it coming. I thought we [The X-Files] were an aberration.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] I want to go back to the sixties, in New York—you’re growing up here. Your mother’s a school administrator and teacher. Your father’s a writer and a publicist. He worked, I understand, for the \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.ajc.org/\"\u003eAmerican Jewish Community\u003c/a\u003e, which was a Jewish advocacy group.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Committee.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Committee, yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nWhat was your relationship like with your parents growing up here? What sort of impact did they have on you as a kid and then [as a] writer?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: My mother is an immigrant from Scotland, and as a Jew, my father also felt like an immigrant, or feels like an outsider, to me. I think in many ways I felt like an immigrant myself in a way. I wasn’t an immigrant, but—\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It was your paternal grandparents that came here.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: My father was born in the States, but not my mother.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: They came from Ukraine and Poland, correct?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, yeah. There was a sense always to me that America was not something I was born into, so much as something that I was living in, and that we would look at from the outside. But I was a New Yorker before I was an American. I felt solidly at home in this city, as did my father. My mother not so much, even though, oddly, she’s 89 and still lives here. [Laughs] She’s still here, in the city that she never really wanted to come to in the first place, I don’t think.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI had kind of an outsider view, even though I was born on the inside, and born maybe in the most American city there is. I had that legacy, I guess.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAs a writer, my mother, she grew up in a very small fishing village in the north of Scotland. I believe she’s the first person—definitely the first woman—to get a college education in her family. Of that generation in that country at that time, getting a college education, [and] becoming literate, was the way out. That was your—not just upward mobility—but it was the bettering of the person. It was a way out. She instilled that in me, even though it wasn’t necessarily the case for me, a kid growing up in New York City, it wasn’t like that.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nStill to this day, I mean, I’m going to go visit her after I do this, and she’s going to ask me about my next book. That’s all she cares about. As soon as that one’s done, she’s going to ask me about the next one. It just never ends, her hunger for literary output, or just reading, was, always, I had to be reading.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nMy dad [\u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amram_Ducovny\"\u003eAmram Duchovny\u003c/a\u003e] was a closet writer until he was 72—he published his first novel at the age of 72.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Which, I think it’s worth saying, was \u003ca href\u003d\"http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/00/10/22/bib/001022.rv104215.html\"\u003ewell-reviewed in The New York Times\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It was, yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It’s called \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.amazon.com/Coney-Amram-Ducovny/dp/1585670677\"\u003eConey\u003c/a\u003e. I actually have a note here—The Times described it as “able to transport readers swiftly into the garish and steamy heart of Coney Island on the eve of World War II,” adding that it’s “as satisfying and exhilarating as a ride on the Cyclone.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: They said that? [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That was nice. I wonder who wrote that one. [Editor’s note: The piece, which was published on Oct. 22, 2000, was written by \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.danakennedy.com/\"\u003eDana Kennedy\u003c/a\u003e.] My dad was born in ’27, so for him to write… The protagonist of his book is a child, who’s a little younger than my dad would have been, I think. My dad was 18 when the war ended.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nMy dad, all his heroes were literary and sports. He loved \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Namath\"\u003eJoe Namath\u003c/a\u003e, he loved \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Mays\"\u003eWillie Mays\u003c/a\u003e, he loved \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Koufax\"\u003eSandy Koufax\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: His father [\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.jta.org/1960/11/03/archive/moshe-duchovny-dead-at-59-noted-yiddish-writer-journalist\"\u003eMoshe Duchovny\u003c/a\u003e] was a newspaperman and reporter, correct?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, for a Yiddish newspaper here in the city called \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forward\"\u003eThe Forward\u003c/a\u003e. It was the last daily Yiddish paper.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You’re sort of the third-generation writer.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I guess, yeah. You know, it’s funny, because growing up I knew my dad said he was a writer, but he didn’t really write. He did publish a number of books that were kind of pastiches. For extra money, he would put together these political-satire books. He wrote \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Wisdom-Spiro-Agnew-collection-Original-Sayings/19567744948/bd\"\u003eThe Wisdom of Spiro T. Agnew\u003c/a\u003e, which was ridiculous quotes of \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew\"\u003eAgnew\u003c/a\u003e. Agnew was like Trump before Trump. He was just a dolt who said ridiculous stupid things—and a criminal. My dad put his quotes kind of facing one another that were completely opposite, and made him out to be the fool that he was. That was one little book.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: If [your dad] were still with us, we would have a Trump book.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, but Trump, it just doesn’t matter. Back then it was like, “Oh, my God, this idiot is in a position of power?” Now we all know that, but there seems to be very little to do.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nHe wrote The Establishment Dictionary, which used [names] from the establishment, like say Nixon or Agnew, as if they were nouns and verbs, and then he would do false Latinate or different language derivations of them, that would make fun of the people.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Sounds very \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graydon_Carter\"\u003eGraydon Carter\u003c/a\u003e [and \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_(magazine)\"\u003eSpy magazine\u003c/a\u003e], actually.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, like to Agnew, I think was like from the Persian agnewi, “to bleed like a sheep,” or something like that. He would do these things, and he’d make some cash.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nHe wrote a play that was on Broadway in 1967 called The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, which was not funny. Although, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks\"\u003eMel Brooks\u003c/a\u003e could have definitely done a \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1967_film)\"\u003eProducers\u003c/a\u003e with that play—it was that bleak. If they would have made it a musical comedy, it would have done better. It closed in a week, and it was only four years after the assassination. My dad always thought it was too soon; people weren’t ready.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThe conceit was if Oswald hadn’t been assassinated and had sat trial, what would that trial have been? That was the play.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Your dad also, it seems, had a sense of humor, which corresponds to what you do.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: He did. Yeah, he did. He said to me once, “I’m giving you the best thing a father could ever give a son. I’m not very successful.” [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: In your second book [\u003ca href\u003d\"https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374110420\"\u003eBucky F*cking Dent: A Novel\u003c/a\u003e], of course, there’s a very close father/son relationship, but difficult dynamics.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, that is nothing like my father at all. That is just a creation out of necessity to drive the story. I just kind of made up that character. My father was not a hardass, he wasn’t abusive.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I heard you \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.npr.org/2018/02/17/586686178/not-my-job-x-files-star-david-duchovny-gets-quizzed-on-famous-exes\"\u003edescribe him on NPR\u003c/a\u003e as “gentle” or “permissive.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yes. He was very gentle and ironic, playful. He’s nothing like the character in the book.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Before you even thought of becoming an actor, you had literary aspirations. When did those start? Where did those come from?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Probably through my father. I just wanted to be like him, or to kind of figure out what it was that interested him, and did it interest me.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nYou hear my stomach there, Pat? [Looks at Pat McCusker, Time Sensitive’s sound engineer, beyond the glass in the adjacent room.] Did you hear that? It was good. Let’s save that one, we’ll put it on the record.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI just wanted him to like my writing, I guess. I remember giving him papers that I had to write in sixth grade, and if he didn’t love them, I would just get so angry at him. He’d suggest changes, and I’d just yell at him and tell him he was wrong. I just wanted him to love what I did.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nFrom both my parents, [I got] a real respect for writing. To be able to express yourself, to be able to think. To this day, I think better as a writer than I do as somebody who just kind of stews and thinks of things. I think better with a pen in my hand.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I noticed on Twitter, for example, you’re definitely not a reactive Twitterer.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: No, Twitter just … I kind of stay off of it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: There is this idea, and especially in Bucky F*cking Dent, of the child self versus the adult self. I’m curious, do you think back about your child writing versus your adult writing? Is there a sort of throughline or a parallel there?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It’s funny, it’s a good question. I’ve never said this, there’s a couple of… The character in Bucky Dent finds some old notebooks, and there’s like a journaling or some notes that he wrote as a young boy, that he remembers. It’s quoted in the book—he’s kind of looking at it in wonderment, thinking, Who’s this kid that is so concerned about his bowling average and stuff like that? I don’t even remember liking bowling. It’s like it’s a totally different person.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThose were lifted, literally. My mother just happened to hand me these notebooks of mine, most of which were filled with me playing this dice baseball game that I used to play. Just pages and pages of games, nine-inning games that I played, of teams against each other, with just these two dice. There was also pages of my bowling statistics, and basketball statistics, and some diary-like entries.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI used them verbatim. I changed the name of my buddy in one, so I wouldn’t piss him off, because I called him lame or something in it. Other than that, those were taken right out of these notebooks. I just remember thinking, God, it’s so interesting.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nWhen you have kids of your own, you think you can talk to them like adults. Mine are older now, but when they were young, you think, They must be reasonable people. They probably want and think about the same things I do. But then I look back at myself when I was 10 and see what I was concerned with and the way that I thought, and it’s just a different person.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Do you remember the first thing you wrote that you felt had true literary value, or was something you were proud of?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: No, not really. I think there were a couple of papers in college that I thought were pretty good, criticism. But fiction-wise, I think I wrote a short story in college that I thought was pretty good.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nBut really, like my dad, I really didn’t start until I decided to write \u003ca href\u003d\"https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374172077\"\u003eHoly Cow\u003c/a\u003e, five or six years ago. I think that my style changed without me knowing it. I think I became a better writer by not writing for a while, somehow. I think I just became a better thinker.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: There must have been quite an evolution to go from this more theory-based work to writing a story, your first book, Holy Cow, [in which] the protagonist is a cow.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, I was pressuring myself. I had some time off. Much like my dad must have pressured himself at some point, when he got a little older: “I’ve said I’m a writer, let’s write.“ I’d written screenplays, I’d written teleplays. I’d gotten stuff that I’d written produced as drama, comedy, whatever, but not as fiction, not as prose.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThen I thought, of the ideas that I have that I think might sustain a novel-length treatment, the one about the animals seemed the least pressure. I could kind of write an abandon in a way, because I would be addressing… I didn’t know the audience quite so well. I didn’t know if it was adult. I thought it was kind of a hybrid, where I would address kind of a kids’ story, [and] skew it toward adults. I felt like that would be liberating for me, not to write the great American novel, not try to die on that hill my first time out. It just felt very unpretentious, and I could just kind of free-associate my way through it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAlso, I didn’t think I’d be held up to any kind of standards of realism. This is a talking cow, pig, and a turkey. It’s obviously in another realm.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right. \u003ca href\u003d\"https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374210403\"\u003eMiss Subways\u003c/a\u003e, your latest book, also has that fantastical hyperrealism.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah. The one that I just finished, my mother will be happy to know, is just in the real world and just in the present day. This would be my epic kind of American-scope novel.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Do you think [that], after leaving Yale, becoming an actor, and then later, two-plus decades later, returning to writing, was liberating for you, in a way? That it took some of the heat or the pressure off that you might have felt trying to do that?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Oh, if I’d done that out of the gate? Yeah, for sure, for sure. There’s something to be said for having to write for your dinner. You’re certainly going to get some words out. I think the fact that I was well-fed probably inhibited me from writing before. I didn’t need to—nobody was asking me to. My kids were going to be okay if I didn’t.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nBut on the other hand, the fact that… Of course, I’d love everything that I write to be a bestseller, but I don’t need it financially. I’m free artistically that way, to pursue what I want, what interests me. That’s a great benefit, too.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: There’s also this idea of urgency. That writing, oftentimes when you have a sense of urgency—\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I would have had the urgency if I had started when I was 22, the urgency of making a career. The urgency of, “This is what I want to say.” But in a way, being quiet for so long, not writing for so long, gave me a different kind of urgency when I did start. Which is interesting to me, and was really a wonderful thing for me as an artist. I’ve been acting for thirty years, directing, just living in that world, and happy with it. Happy to do those jobs and to solve those problems.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nBut to start something new—and \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.davidduchovnymusic.com/\"\u003ewe did it with the music as well\u003c/a\u003e—to start something new has a real kind of urgency to it that is different from the urgencies of mid-career or late career, whatever, of something that you’ve been doing for a while. I love that kind of unknown and that energy to it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think time, too, has an important role here. Your perspective shifts with this time, and of course, the older you get, the less time you have on earth. There’s probably a certain element there as well.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, I think so. I don’t want to be maudlin about it, but really I feel… I think about when I’m gone and I think about my kids, and I always think, “If they want to know what I was like as an adult,” because they’re close to being adults, and hopefully I’ll live long enough for them to get to know me. They could read the books, and they could really get in my head and in my heart.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSeeing me perform is one thing. You can get a sense of me, whatever. You can be in my presence probably more immediately by watching something. I’m thinking of my kids again. But if you really wanted to know who I was, just pulp these books, and make a shake out of them, and swallow it down. They’d know me. I think that’s a gift from me to them in a way.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right. We’ve talked a little bit about each of your books. Can you reveal anything about the next one?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Well, it has to do with America, and capitalism, and religion, and yet it’s a rollicking, action-filled story of the West. It takes place in California, which is different. All these books take place—I think they’re all in New York state. I don’t know where I said Holy Cow was, but I think it’s somewhere up here in the Northeast. [My next novel is] my California book, and it’s my attempt at kind of an epic sweep. It’s about a former stuntman, which is weird, because this \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Tarantino\"\u003eTarantino\u003c/a\u003e film [\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7131622/\"\u003eOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywood\u003c/a\u003e] just came out.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You’re like, “Oh.“ [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: [Laughs] Shit. No, but I saw it too, and I liked it. The protagonist is a stuntman who undergoes a religious conversion. It’s very different from that. That doesn’t tell you much, but that just tells you a little bit.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I want to talk a little bit more about writing, craft and writing, and then get into your acting work. What is your process when you sit down to write? What’s going through your head?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That’s a good question. For instance, [for] this last book, I probably had the germ of the idea ten years ago. I’ve had it in my head for ten years.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Miss Subways?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: No, no.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Oh, the new one.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, it’s called Truly Like Lightning.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I did notice though that Miss Subways, the title, was mentioned in Bucky Dent.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: [Laughs] Yeah, I’d had that idea, sure.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThat wasn’t a new idea, either. That’s another benefit of starting late—you get to use all the ideas you had when you were younger.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThe process of writing on a particular day or of starting a novel?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Just typing.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I’m a bad typer. I’m a one-finger, two-finger typer. I don’t write longhand; I do type it out at the computer. Normally what I do is I try to wake up really early, like at 4:30, 5:00, and I have my espresso, and I use that euphoria. I’m a lightweight with drugs—drugs affect me immediately and completely. One espresso makes me very happy, and feel like I confidently can go out and write wonderfully. I use that, and I just start writing.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nUsually I like to stop before I finish what I’m doing that day, so that I can pick up with something. At least I know what I’m doing the next day. I don’t like to finish whatever it is I was working on that day.  Because, to sit down and not know the first couple beats of what you’re going after is really horrible.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThat’s what I do. I write fast, and I probably write usually four or five hours. Maybe another coffee in there. Then around noon, if what I’m doing is writing, I’ll eat, and then the rest of the day is pretty much done. I’m just mentally kind of spent at that point, but I feel good. It’s a good feeling to have.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nFirst of all, I like getting up that early. I like the idea that I’m getting a jump on everybody else. Like everybody’s asleep, and I’m here and I’m writing. Already I feel like I’m ahead, just by sitting down.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You mentioned beats. Rhythm of course is a big part of—I’m sure—your day-to-day, in both your \u003ca href\u003d\"https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0000141/filmotype\"\u003eacting work\u003c/a\u003e [and your music]. How do you think about rhythm in your life?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It’s just very personal. It’s like when you edit a piece, speaking of music as well, I’m always amazed. Not everybody’s on the same page. It’s very clear when you edit film or television with somebody, and you can just differ by a millisecond of when you want to get out of a shot, or get into a shot, or comic timing or dramatic timing, and all that stuff. It’s all rhythmical, and it’s all very personal. You’re just looking for people who have the same type of rhythm that you do in that way.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It’s very much heart, not so much science.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It is.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It is, although people, there’s a science to it, I guess. I guess if we broke it down, there’s a science to it, but I don’t know what that science is. It’s informed by experience, though. It’s informed by having been in the editing room. It’s informed by having been an actor, and feeling, like, What’s the right timing of that? When does that happen?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nWith comedy especially—everybody talks about comic timing, and that’s something that you feel or you don’t feel. That’s something that, later on, when you edit comedy, you can either enhance, or destroy, or create, when the actor didn’t get that timing.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: All your books are with the same publisher, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://us.macmillan.com/fsg/\"\u003eFSG\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: The same editor, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Galassi\"\u003eJonathan Galassi\u003c/a\u003e. What’s your relationship with him like? How do you bounce ideas back and forth?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It’s funny, I came to Jonathan through a friend of mine named \u003ca href\u003d\"https://us.macmillan.com/author/eleanorchai/\"\u003eEleanor Chai\u003c/a\u003e, who’s a poet. He’s a wonderful editor. FSG is a great literary publishing house. I thought, Holy Cow, I don’t know if that’s in your wheelhouse. Jonathan said, “No, I think you’re a writer, and I want to publish your books. I think this is a good first one.“\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: When I saw the title of the book, I was almost thinking maybe that was going through your head, “Holy cow, I’m publishing at FSG.” [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Proposing this book with FSG that has drawings in it for fuck’s sake.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nHe was very kind with that. It wasn’t heavily edited; it’s a short book.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It’s always interesting, because—talking about [the] personal and the connection of rhythm—the relationship with the editor is so deep.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Here’s the deal: with Jonathan, he’s always like… I’ve got to pitch him first, which is funny. “What’s the next one?“ It’s like my mother. The funny thing is, is he lives in my mother’s building. My mother thinks that Jonathan Galassi is God. She’s always like, “I saw your editor. What does he think about your book?“ Nobody else matters but Jonathan, to my mom. “I saw Jonathan in the building. What does he think of the book?” I said, “Well, he’s publishing it, Mom. He must think it’s okay.” I don’t know what to say—he’s publishing it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI pitched him Bucky, [and] he said, “Okay.” I don’t think he’s a big baseball fan or anything, but we went with that. We worked through that, and Miss Subways as well. Miss Subways he was probably most lukewarm [to] of the first three, but I think he liked the way I executed it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThen this one, this last one, I went and I had this idea for a science-fiction show, and I wrote it out as a pilot. I said to him, “What about we do it as a graphic novel?” and I pitched him the idea. He said, “I like the idea, but we don’t really do… I don’t know anything about graphic novels, we don’t do them. Do you have anything else?” I said, “I have this other idea, too, and I pitched him that idea.” He said, “I think I like that. I like that a lot. I like that idea.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI told my agent, and my agent, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.blaunerbooks.com/about\"\u003eAndrew Blauner\u003c/a\u003e, he called like two weeks later, and he said, “Why don’t you write that up as a proposal, and we’ll get a contract from FSG.” I said, “Because then I’ll have to write it. If I accept any money from them, then I’ll actually have to write that book.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: You wrote the first three more on spec?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think it’s an interesting connection to your acting work, that a lot of the roles you’ve played have been writers. Could you talk about that? The fictional writer versus the real-life David Duchovny writer.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I don’t know. I don’t know why that is. I’ve thought about that—or, been asked about that—too. All I can say is there’s nothing more boring than portraying a writer on-screen, not to the actor, but to the viewer. To watch a writer write.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: But usually they have very colorful lives.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That’s the lie. \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Kapinos\"\u003eTom Kapinos\u003c/a\u003e, who was the creator of Californication [the Showtime series], said, “This is a total fantasy of mine, that a writer would be considered attractive to women, first of all, and that people would be interested in what he does and how he thinks.” In a way it’s like writers, I think often, that’s their revenge, is to write stories in which writers matter in the real world. [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think your first writer character, at least the one that I could find—\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Who’s that?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: From \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097964/\"\u003eNew Year’s Day\u003c/a\u003e in 1989.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, that would be the first, since that’s the first job I did. Was he a writer?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: There’s this line: “I’ve written poetry, and I write fiction.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I don’t think he had a job. I think he was unemployed.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I loved how [in] another role of yours around this time, you were on some daily show or late-night show, joking that you were “Club-Goer No. 3” in \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099091/\"\u003eBad Influence\u003c/a\u003e from 1990.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I was saying I named my kids after roles, roles that meant something to me. I said one of my first jobs was very important to me when I first came out to Hollywood, so I’m naming my first son Club-Goer No. 2.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think the first role of yours that really stood out as not only exemplary of your talent as an actor, but really one that I think, nationally, people noticed was \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098936/characters/nm0000141\"\u003ein Twin Peaks, [as] Denise\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I’m curious about how you think about that now in this current moment.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: It’s so strange.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I think we should say here that Denise is a transgender woman.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Is she, though? She’s a transvestite. I don’t know—it was never made clear.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: That’s interesting, because the writing about that role now is all over the internet.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Right.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.samanthaleighallen.com/\"\u003eSamantha Allen\u003c/a\u003e, who is transgender, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-made-twin-peaks-denise-such-a-radical-trans-character-on-tv\"\u003ewrote an essay in The Daily Beast\u003c/a\u003e a couple years ago saying that, “To this day, it may be the most tender portrayal of friendship between a transgender person and someone who knew them before transition, and it was first aired in 1990.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, it was interesting to do it again a couple years ago. I did read some stuff about how I was given slack as a cisgender male, to be allowed to play it, because I kind of played it so long ago, and it was the same role. There’s no way that a cisgender actor would play that role now, which I find interesting, and [feel] lucky that I was able to do it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI felt just as an actor back then—it was my third or fourth job or whatever—I remember my thought process going into it. The only backstory that I had for the character was in the scripts, which was that he was working [as a] drug enforcement agent. This is so ridiculous. He was trying to bust this dealer who would only sell to transvestites. Exactly. This is the world of Twin Peaks.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThis is like the monologue that I have of why I show up and see \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_MacLachlan\"\u003eKyle MacLachlan\u003c/a\u003e. This guy that he used to know, why I show up in a dress, so I’m telling him my story, “What happened since you last saw me?” “Well, I was working with the DEA, and we were trying to bust this dealer who would only deal to transvestites.” [Laughs] You’re supposed to let that slide. “I put on the clothes, and I found that I felt freer, liberated. It suited me.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThat was really all I had to go on. Then I just approached it that way. It wasn’t about sex, and it really wasn’t about gender, to me. It was about the feeling that the clothes had given this guy, and then this identity that he had felt was his once he put… That’s really the only way I approached it. I didn’t approach it as A, B, C, or D, or whatever. I approached it as a human being finding something out about themselves, and sharing it with an old friend.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It must have felt so freeing to just not pay attention to any external factors or what society or politics, or anything at the time, would have told you to do.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah. Honestly, as an actor, you can’t have any kind of a judgment. As a person, I don’t have a judgment on it, but I recognize that many people do. That’s what the struggle is about. As an actor, famously, you can’t judge. You just have to try to inhabit.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nGetting back to my father, it was funny. It was probably the first—like, you mentioned New Year’s Day—that was an independent movie that nobody would have seen really, a hundred, three hundred people might have seen it. Twin Peaks, the first time I’d be on television, and millions of people would see me. I had no concern what I was wearing, I was an actor, this was the job, “I’m doing the best that I can here.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nMy father had had heart surgery in Boston right when it was airing. My father didn’t really know anything about my life as an actor. He didn’t really understand what I was trying to do or where I was going. He knew that I wasn’t an academic. He was like, “The kid I knew…” (He left when I was 11.) He was like, “The kid I knew, I didn’t see him being in a university his whole life.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nHe’d undergone the surgery, and I went to visit him up in Boston. He had a legal pad by his bedside. He had tubes or he was very sore from the surgery in his throat, so he couldn’t speak. He had a pad, where he would write down his thoughts or his requests to the nurses. I got there—he was sleeping—and I saw this pad by his bed. It said, “My feet are cold. I’m thirsty. My son plays a transvestite on television.” He was saying, “Please turn on the TV.” They were like, “Why?” [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: “This sounds very random.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I’m sure they thought he’s taken too many Percocet here or something.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Yeah, yeah. Then, of course, your role [as Agent Fox Mulder] on The X-Files, which you played consistently from ’93 to 2001.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Now looking back almost thirty years—and of course you kind of return to the character twenty-five years on—what does that role, the Agent Mulder role, mean to you in your own personal life, but also sort of looking at where we are in society? I know you touched on it briefly, talking about what’s happening in Hollywood and what people are really paying attention to, and how The X-Files was sort of ahead of its time in that way.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Personally, it meant everything to me as an actor and as a professional person, in that it gave me success. It gave me financial stability. It gave me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have had, had I not been on a show that was, seriously, a global phenomenon. There are good aspects and bad aspects of that obviously, but the good greatly outweigh the bad.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThe second part of your question was?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eSB: How you view The X-Files in contemporary culture today.\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\n\u003c/b\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Well, I think we touched on that. Even if you look at horror movies, too, you look at the resurgence of horror and sci-fi thrillers—that’s what The X-Files was. We were a different show every week. We were a horror show, we were a sci-fi show, we were a government procedural, depending on when you tuned in. I think we kind of, in a way, not staked out that territory, but we were playing in those territories that are now very popular. That doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a fact. I’m not taking credit. I’m just looking at it objectively, and it’s interesting just to look at that.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI find it also interesting to think about what \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Carter_(screenwriter)\"\u003eChris Carter\u003c/a\u003e did, making an FBI agent a hero in a time… Me, I’m not really a child of the sixties—I’m a little too young for that—but I definitely inherited that “Don’t trust the man” [idea]. For me to play a heroic FBI agent, to me that was like, “That’s not really my bag, you know? I don’t see myself as a cop.”\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIt’s just interesting to look at where we are now, where we’ve been waiting for \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mueller\"\u003eRobert Mueller\u003c/a\u003e to save us. Even before that, we’ve been relying on these military chiefs of staff to be the adults in the room. We’ve kind of come full circle, where, when I grew up it was like you don’t trust the military. Now, in the \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.huffpost.com/entry/age-of-trump_n_5d674e47e4b022fbceb5fede\"\u003eage of Trump\u003c/a\u003e, those are the only guys that seem to be adults in that place. It’s a very queasy position for, I guess, people like me to be in. Where it’s like, “Oh, my God, thank God for Robert Mueller. Robert Mueller? Lifelong Republican? Was the head of the FBI?“ This is not what you thought of as the social savior. There’s that.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThen again, I got to play Mulder as kind of a rebel against the bureaucracy of the FBI, even if it was a silly rebellion, which was like, “Hey, aliens exist,” or whatever he’s saying. He’s saying there is a deep state. There’s a deep state that’s prohibiting you from knowing the truth, and he’s the rebel who’s going to expose it.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: There’s something about that character—there’s a tension, especially between Mulder and \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Scully\"\u003eScully\u003c/a\u003e, that’s kind of amazing. I feel like there’s this healthy tension that was created in the show that is, in part, why it lasted so long.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Can you talk a little bit about that? Like, how you viewed that tension between the characters?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah. I think the creation of the tension was a result of having to spin out so many stories. If it was a movie, maybe they would have jumped into bed by the middle of the second act, and broken up by the end, and come to some kind of agreement by the end of the movie.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSince it was a series, there was this kind of dance of intimacy that had to go on for years and years, that nobody knew when we started. We knew we were going to have to stay apart, yet be together. In fact, there was a character in the pilot who was cut out of the pilot, who is Scully’s boyfriend. There’s a phone call in the pilot where I think I call her in the middle of the night, and I say, “The bad guys have destroyed all the evidence,” or whatever. The scene was shot, there’s two shots of her and this guy in bed with her, and there’s a shot after they hang up, where he says, “Who was that?” She says, “Oh, it was that new guy, Mulder, that I’m working with.” He’s just totally cut out; they just used a single of her on the phone.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI think they realized early on that it was going to be some kind of primary relationship, but it wasn’t going to be sexual.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Did you ever imagine that this character would, on some level—I see you shake your head—it’s almost like you know the question I’m about to ask. Did you imagine this character would turn you, in a way, into a sex symbol? Like have \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/26/arts/looking-for-space-aliens-and-denying-yale.html\"\u003eMaureen Dowd in 1995 describe you as the “first internet sex symbol with hair”\u003c/a\u003e?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Thank you, Maureen.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I heard you described as a “Hollywood hunk” on a radio interview.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, I can’t say that I’m surprised, because it’s not something I ever thought about. To say that I was surprised would mean that I would be sitting around thinking, Gee, I wonder what role is going to turn me into a sex symbol? It wasn’t Denise—maybe it was [Mulder]. I think it was like his lack of interest in sex, in a way, that made him a sex symbol.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: In a way, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Moody\"\u003eHank Moody\u003c/a\u003e [from Californication] was the opposite of that.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah, and that was conscious—not necessarily in terms of the sexuality of it, but I was conscious of playing not just a character, but of inhabiting a world that was at the opposite side of the spectrum of The X-Files. Although, I had often tried to infuse humor in The X-Files. I guess I probably went the other way, and would try to infuse drama in Californication. That’s just my nature as an artist or as a performer, to bring the opposite in.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Right. I think this throughline of humor, sex, sexuality—it’s really interesting. I read that \u003ca href\u003d\"https://mashable.com/2018/05/04/david-duchovny-booty-calls-prince-charles/\"\u003eyou taught Prince Charles what a booty call is\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I didn’t want to. Just, the occasion arose.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] These funny circumstances. Of course, in Bucky Dent, there’s this whole father exchange around the idea of “cock talk,” and the trauma therein. In Miss Subways, the book opens up literally with the male gaze and manspreading. There’s this line you describe as “the hedge fund simulacrum of masculinity,” which I thought was particularly [apt] for this moment. Miss Subways was also the first place I ever read the phrase, “\u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-nov-29-cl-38569-story.html\"\u003eaprès sex\u003c/a\u003e.“\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Is that because I made it up?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: I’m sure it exists—it must exist.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I don’t know whether I’ve ever read it, either. I kind of hope I made it up.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: In terms of how you think about those things, like humor and sex, is that something that’s been intentionally in your work, or is that just part of your day-to-day?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Not intentionally. I mean, to talk about humor is very risky, right? There’s nothing less funny than to try to explain why something’s funny. I think what is funny is what is human, what joins us all. When we are exposed for the animals that we are, that could be the saddest, [as] in King Lear, or the funniest. To me, I guess that’s what it comes down to.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAlso, in terms of Californication, I didn’t write any of that, but clearly sex makes people uncomfortable in some way, in the civilized world. There’s a lot of energy to be mined from those kinds of scenes—not a sex scene, but just in the area. I don’t know. Again, I just feel like it’s just not funny.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: It’s interesting you mention what it means to be human or getting in touch with that. There were two things in doing research for this interview—and this is sort of where I want to close—that related to trauma, at least in my mind, that I could see you going through in life. One very obvious, one was your daughter when she was quite young, she had an illness that completely transformed how you think about life, period.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nThe other being—and I might be going a little too far here, but I know in the [2004] film you [wrote, starred, and directed in], \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372334/\"\u003eHouse of D\u003c/a\u003e, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Williams\"\u003eRobin Williams\u003c/a\u003e was in it. Robin Williams is one of these larger-than-life characters, and the role he played in that film, it’s him at his best, I think. This really incredible character.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI guess trauma is the question. I’m sure \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/movies/robin-williams-oscar-winning-comedian-dies-at-63.html\"\u003ewhen Robin passed and left us\u003c/a\u003e, that was a very traumatic moment for you, just understanding him in that role, and probably in connection to your personal life.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: How have you handled both of those two polar things, the young child very sick, and a good friend, somebody who’s a legend, who you admire, who was this larger-than-life figure, passing on?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I think generally, I guess, as an artist, or as somebody who wants to live, you take whatever wounds you get from life—and we’re all going to get them—and you try and find the strength in those things, in overcoming them, or in processing them, or in turning them into something else.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIn the case of my daughter, \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2367734/\"\u003eWest\u003c/a\u003e, getting ill when she was nine months old, I guess I turned it into Bucky F*cking Dent, which is really the heart of that book. Which is why I say to my kids, “When I’m gone, read the books.” In there, she’ll see what she meant to me.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIn terms of Robin, it’s not just Robin. Robin certainly was, as you describe him, Robin was a wildly energetic person. Had so much imagination, and speed, and energy, and pain, which, I don’t know that I knew where it came from, but it came from somewhere.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nI don’t know if you know, the other actor in the film was named \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0947338/\"\u003eAnton Yelchin\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/arts/anton-yelchin-star-trek-actor-dies-at-27-in-an-accident.html\"\u003ehe died about two years ago\u003c/a\u003e, at the age of 24 or 25. [Editor’s note: He was 27.] He was run over by his own car. He had parked it on a hill and he was checking something, and it went into reverse and pinned him and killed him. He was just a beautiful person and a wonderful actor, and an artist, an artist across the board. He was a musician; he was directing his first film when he was killed. He was a great actor, had a really great career. I think \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/anton-yelchin-documentary-sundance-2019.html\"\u003ethere’s actually a documentary that his parents have done about him that is going to come out\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nIt just doesn’t make sense, right? That’s just the way life is: it just doesn’t make sense. There’s never going to be a story that I can tell that makes it okay for Anton to have died that young, but maybe we try. What we do is, as human beings, I think we tell stories to one another. There’s no sense to be had out there, really. It’s just the world, and we just happen to be animals on it. We’re trying to tell each other that there’s a God up there who’s taking care of us or not, or there’s climate change that’s coming or not.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAll these stories that we’re telling ourselves are important. It’s kind of what Bucky Dent is about: it’s about, Look, there’s no truth; there’s no answer. There’s only stories that we tell each other, that either make us better people or worse people. There are stories that we tell each other that make us kinder and more loving, or more animalistic and more violent.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: A lot of this, I think, too, is this notion of transference of energy. Taking energy from someone—say, Robin or Anton, or your young child, who thankfully survived and is alive. How do you think about energy in that context. and now as a musician, and an actor, and a writer? How are you transferring that energy into your own work?\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: I don’t know. I think that’s the only thing that kind of survives. Energy gets dissipated, obviously. Again, I hate to come back to that same example, but I guess it’s in my head. I put a lot of energy—you’ve got three books, my three books right in front of you. I put a lot of energy into making those things, so that energy’s gone, but these things, somehow they retain a certain kind of energy. They’re like magic crystals or something.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: Are you back to magic now? [Laughs]\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Yeah. You can access that energy again so it’s not lost in some way. You can look at a movie again, and you can feel that creative energy again. You can watch a series and feel energized by the energy that was put into that—now you’re getting it. I think that’s all we have. That’s the game that we’re all playing. We’re just these energetic beings that are running around expending the energy that we’ve been given on this planet.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nAgain, it goes back to what an idiot Trump is. He won’t work out, because he says you only have so much energy. Stuff like that. I can’t get that guy out of my head. It’s like that. It’s like, that’s what we’re here to do, is to expend the energy. I don’t want to say “God-given,” but just what we’ve been given.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: David, this was great. Thanks so much for coming in.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: That made no sense, I know.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nSB: [Laughs] Thanks for coming.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nDD: Thank you.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis interview was recorded in \u003ca href\u003d\"http://www.slowdown.tv/\"\u003eThe Slowdown\u003c/a\u003e’s New York City studio on July 30, 2019. The transcript has been slightly condensed and edited for clarity.\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\n\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003ci\u003esource: \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/interview-david-duchovny-on-climate.html\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003ets\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/2397076185901000220/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/transcript-david-duchovny-on-climate.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/2397076185901000220"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/2397076185901000220"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/05/transcript-david-duchovny-on-climate.html","title":"Transcript: David Duchovny on the Climate Crisis, the Drawbacks of Technology, and the Craft of Writing"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZXokiPiiXUEIjphzoGAFmbBsy_bHta9sOStCT2TmhQqno3fxzbCPMqqNj7ozaG6JzryV-4CGbBNv04AKSnF_Cma_NIFD_3RJHf43tSXkrEKM9ohyphenhyphenuZ8lRuafVwJSVvce4zXYLfooJ1Y/s72-c/ddfdf.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5810865130164992971.post-192237106130817035"},"published":{"$t":"2020-02-15T12:22:00.000-08:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2020-02-15T12:22:28.143-08:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Truly Like Lightning"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"writer"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"books"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"David Duchovny sold his new book Truly Like Lightning!"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"Good for David!\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eDuchovny’s ‘Lightning’ Strikes FSG\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class\u003d\"separator\" style\u003d\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003ca href\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxt1bd0Qy0BZSJl2-cvd6lyfKJ2cQ6kORDfkiCHX9jaCozK9i3eiJSbyN0joLyF-lod3LhIEqdhIy_z0uK-hZ3bR2hUC1sAx-TghNe8xWJNX76WhpgviNxfNBMfRZ3JPf8CzSa7Sthww/s1600/writer.png\" imageanchor\u003d\"1\" style\u003d\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003e\u003cimg border\u003d\"0\" data-original-height\u003d\"472\" data-original-width\u003d\"829\" height\u003d\"182\" src\u003d\"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxt1bd0Qy0BZSJl2-cvd6lyfKJ2cQ6kORDfkiCHX9jaCozK9i3eiJSbyN0joLyF-lod3LhIEqdhIy_z0uK-hZ3bR2hUC1sAx-TghNe8xWJNX76WhpgviNxfNBMfRZ3JPf8CzSa7Sthww/s320/writer.png\" width\u003d\"320\" /\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003ca name\u003d'more'\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nActor, director, and author David Duchovny sold a novel titled \u003cb\u003eTruly Like Lightning\u003c/b\u003e to Jonathan Galassi at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. The book, which agent Andrew Blauner sold world rights to, is, FSG said, “an epic story about America, religion, family, sex, pop culture, the ’60s, education, environmentalism, greed, murder, love, and blood atonement set in a Mormon enclave in the outskirts of Los Angeles.” Duchovny, in a release, added that the novel follows “a charismatic former Hollywood stuntman turned Mormon homesteader, Joseph Smith Mulholland Bronson, who lives with his five ‘sister wives’ and 12 children on a sprawling ranch that abuts the famous Joshua Tree National Park.” Duchovny is the author of three previous novels: Bucky F*cking Dent, Holy Cow, and Miss Subways.\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\nsource: \u003ca href\u003d\"https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/82378-book-deals-week-of-february-10-2020.html\" target\u003d\"_blank\"\u003epw\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style\u003d\"text-align: justify;\"\u003e\n\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/feeds/192237106130817035/comments/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/02/david-duchovny-sold-his-new-book-truly.html#comment-form","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/192237106130817035"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"https://www.blogger.com/feeds/5810865130164992971/posts/default/192237106130817035"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"https://www.duchovnycentral.com/2020/02/david-duchovny-sold-his-new-book-truly.html","title":"David Duchovny sold his new book Truly Like Lightning!"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"user"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"35","height":"35","src":"//www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxt1bd0Qy0BZSJl2-cvd6lyfKJ2cQ6kORDfkiCHX9jaCozK9i3eiJSbyN0joLyF-lod3LhIEqdhIy_z0uK-hZ3bR2hUC1sAx-TghNe8xWJNX76WhpgviNxfNBMfRZ3JPf8CzSa7Sthww/s72-c/writer.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});