Invisible Interview Questions….

I do a lot of interviews. I used to post up links to them here in the blog. Though lately most of them end up getting posted on facebook or twitter.

The thing is, what you guys end up seeing is the final version of the interviews. The pretty finished versions that have been tidied up. Edited. Expurgated.

For example, when I’m doing interviews, a lot of time, people ask questions like:

Them: If you’d never been published, what do you think you would be?

Me: An unpublished author.

Them: [Laughing.] I’m sorry, what I mean is, if you weren’t a writer, what other job do you think you’d be doing now. What are you suited to do?

Me: Oh. In that case, I think I’d be a hobo.

Them: What we’re looking for is something more along the lines of your dream job.

Me: Still hobo.

Them: [Long pause] I think being a hobo is actually the opposite of a job.

Me: [Thoughtfully] That’s a good point. It’s more of a calling, isn’t it?

Them: Yes?

Me: What you’re asking is if I wasn’t a writer, what would my perfect career be?

Them: Yes. [Obvious relief.] That’s it exactly. What’s your dream job?

Me: Batman.

The moral of the story is this: I am a pain in the ass to interview.

In related news, here’s a link to a recent interview I did with the A.V. Club. For those of you who haven’t seen it.

Later,

pat

This entry was posted in Interviews. By Pat40 Responses

40 Comments

  1. firebird
    Posted June 17, 2015 at 6:41 PM | Permalink

    Any news on when the stuffs will be shipped from the fundraiser? Or about the cruise? It’s summer….but I’ll still wear that hoodie everyday.

    • Posted June 17, 2015 at 7:08 PM | Permalink

      We’ll be posting up a blog about dates and times fairly soon. But info like that will mostly show up in messages from the fundraiser itself…. Or in the Worldbuilder’s blog.

    • tap836
      Posted June 23, 2015 at 1:41 PM | Permalink

      Emails about the Cruise are heading out now. Just got an email and saw the Subject: “JoCoCruise Crazy 2016”. My initial reaction was, !!!!!, then I thought there was just no way I would have actually won, that that was probably just a consolation email. It is just a “you were not the winner” email. I imagine a lot of people start thinking the same way as those emails popup :)

      • justajenjen
        Posted June 24, 2015 at 11:15 AM | Permalink

        Yeah, I got mine and I was disapointed, but then I thought, “Yeah, probably a good thing, since I’d have to sell my first born to buy plane tickets to get from France to Florida.” And I do rather like my first born.

  2. Athena
    Posted June 17, 2015 at 7:15 PM | Permalink

    I don’t understand. How is being a hobo NOT like a full time career? I mean, you’ve got panhandling (which, to be honest, pays a lot better than an author’s first “royalties”), and then there’s negotiating where to sleep, where to eat, and where to shower…I mean, it’s a gig. Seems like a perfectly acceptable interview answer to me. u_u

  3. Posted June 17, 2015 at 9:48 PM | Permalink

    I can confirm. When I had a one-on-one with Pat for an hour my mind blanked and I asked dumb, interview-like questions. I got gelato out of it though, so that was nice.

    • Posted June 24, 2015 at 5:57 AM | Permalink

      I was even worse. Pat came to Asturias, in the North of Spain, last summer, to the Celsius festival. I went there with my books with the hope of getting them signed and thanking him personally for, generally speaking, existing and writing and then being brave enough as to share part of his soul with us. The normal stuff, you know.
      I saw him, he was walking about 7 or 8 meters away from me.
      Now I want to point some things out: I was a 25 years old woman. I had studied English for several years at school and outside school, and then decided to make of English my proffessional career, so I studied English at College too. I am supposed to have a C2 level of English, which is pretty much enough for teaching others and, presumably, thanking your favourite author for being the person he is.
      That said, let’s start again. I saw him. He was walking about 7 or 8 metres away from me, looking awsome with his long beard, though you could tell by the smile on his face and the position of his shoulders that he was tired. And then, something horrible and strange, that I cannot explain even a year later, happened. I lost my mind, and became some kind of crazy teenager girl in front of her favourite rock star or something like that (which is weird, because my mother says that I was never a teenager as regards of behaviour). I couldn’t talk at all for a momment. And then I whispered, really quietly, to my best friend “Esesleselesel!!!” (it’shimit’shimi’tshim!!! kind of gnomish speaking, if you’ve read Dragonlance books). Some man of the staff, who was standing near us, heard me, and I suppose that he found it quite funny, because he laughed and asked Pat to have some photos with my friend and me, which he did really kindly. I think that I managed to say “thanks”, but I cannot swear it. And that was it. The next day I got my books signed after a long queque. He said “buenos días” (good morning) and some weird sound escaped through my trembling lips (it sounded like a “wiii, as far as I remember, though everything is a little blurry in my memory). I wasn’t able to express at all how gratefull I felt (and still feel) for the existance of his books. I was reduced to an amoeba, a thing that existed but didn’t think.
      I still do not uderestand what happened. I am still terribly ashamed. But that is the effect he had over me, so I cannot figure how can anyone sit in front of him and ask him whole meaningful questions. It goes beyond my imagination.
      That said, if you were able to speak using full sentences with subject, verb and complements, and if those sentences made sense, I think that it was pretty good. At least you talked with him as if you were human.

      • Ascheriit
        Posted June 25, 2015 at 3:11 PM | Permalink

        I simply asked him his previous character idea names…..
        I also may have asked him about his favorite characters (super heroes/book characters)..but that’s beside the point.

        • Posted June 26, 2015 at 5:41 AM | Permalink

          I think that it was a good question, then. I mean, characters do not always have a clear name, I sometimes find myself adding a second name later in the story because it seems that the original one was incomplete, somehow.
          Did he aswered “Batman” to the second question? :p

  4. Kathmandu
    Posted June 17, 2015 at 10:50 PM | Permalink

    When I Was a kid, I would give the same response. I wanted to be a hobo in the mountains somewhere by the sea. Now, I’m a backpacker which is basically the same thing with more time in hostels. It’s good to know where you belong!

  5. Dominic
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 12:22 AM | Permalink

    While I appreciate these behind the scenes looks at the goings on of famous authors, sometimes I wish your social media presence was a bit more reticent with information. I am of course referring to the Facebook post where you basically spoiled the rest of your series by letting us know that Kvothe was dead and in hell.

    Thanks Rothfuss.

    • imnosuperhero
      Posted June 18, 2015 at 4:53 AM | Permalink

      Isn’t that the April Fool’s interview?

    • Brady Dill
      Posted June 18, 2015 at 6:16 AM | Permalink

      That was an April Fool’s joke…he never gives any spoilers for the third book.

    • Dominic
      Posted June 18, 2015 at 6:34 AM | Permalink

      A couple of days ago he left a Facebook status about Kvothe being in hell.

    • DrPerkele
      Posted June 18, 2015 at 6:37 AM | Permalink

      He was saying that the inn is a personal hell for Kvothe, not that he’s dead and in hell.

    • Posted June 18, 2015 at 11:51 AM | Permalink

      You might want to go read that again. That’s not what I actually said.

  6. imnosuperhero
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 4:55 AM | Permalink

    Makes me wonder if there’s such a thing as a self interview. Aka “Hey Mister Rothfuss, make up and answer some random questions and send us a transcript. Thanks!”

  7. midobal
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 8:14 AM | Permalink

    I don’t understand why they need to edit the interviews, this way looks far more awesome. The batman answer made me laugh out loud.

  8. Taihlo
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 8:46 AM | Permalink

    Would love to read Patrick interviewing Kvothe… now that would be fun…

  9. Posted June 18, 2015 at 8:49 AM | Permalink

    Laughing so hard right now. I needed this today. This reminds me of the time my wife’s Maid of Honor tried to play the “do you know your future spouse?” game by asking me questions about preferences.

    My bride failed all of them because she kept suggesting one-word responses.

  10. lykashii
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 10:28 AM | Permalink

    Hi Pat I was just wondering, you know the Denna Who canvas, will you be selling the rest of them? I desperately want one but couldn’t muster the cash for the fundraiser, only managed to get the auri stuff.
    Thanks :)

  11. clu2life
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 12:42 PM | Permalink

    Pat,

    My friend introduced me to your work about two weeks ago. I have never finished a series faster in my life. I’m a big fantasy reader so your work was nothing short of an emotional delight.

    What makes things better is that you’re the best kind of person I want to hear as an interviwee.

    You’re work has already made me a big fan and your responses to these questions had made me a bigger one.

    tl;dr
    You’re so baus

  12. randomjoe
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 12:47 PM | Permalink

    How did they not know that a hobo is a migratory worker and not a bum? It’s not an easy life, though I can totally see the appeal.

  13. Posted June 18, 2015 at 12:51 PM | Permalink

    We suddenly feel (even more) lucky, our interview with you last year went so well. We had a great time talking with you and we can proudly say that the video we posted about the interview is pure, perfect and unedited. Thanks again for that day Pat!

  14. SporkTastic
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 10:23 PM | Permalink

    We have a likemindedness on the perfect job; I’ve said for years that my dream job would be a homeless wanderer, traveling the world. …that, of course, was before I learned the glory that is “hobo”. And now, I will subject your fans to the earworm that is:

    Hobo, such a wonderful phrase
    Hobo, ain’t no passin’ phase
    It means no working
    For the rest of your days!
    It’s our worry-free
    Philosophy…
    Hobos are awesome!

    Had to stretch for the end there a bit. Someone more musically inclined than I might be able to fix that. :-P

  15. Quillan
    Posted June 18, 2015 at 11:42 PM | Permalink

    Out of innocent curiosity, how does one get an interview with you?

  16. Aibell
    Posted June 21, 2015 at 5:18 PM | Permalink

    I laughed my ass off with that. :’) You re so awesome Pat. i mean Sir~ >_<

  17. fishy007
    Posted June 22, 2015 at 1:43 PM | Permalink

    Are you happy that you’re a ‘pain in the ass to interview’?

    This exchange reminds me of an exchange I had with a friend once. He’d ask a question and while I knew exactly what he was trying to ask, I’d answer him based on the exact semantics of his question. We went back and forth for a while before he called me out on it and asked me why I was being such a pain in the ass. I didn’t really have a good answer to that. He pointed out that I was just being an ass and trying to prove that I was superior to him in that moment.

    I love your books and your writing, but this little blog post has shone some light on a different side of your personality. Thanks for posting it.

  18. Little My
    Posted June 22, 2015 at 7:43 PM | Permalink

    Not sure if anyone is reading these comments at this late date, but I was looking for some assistance. I have a recollection that Pat wrote down some musings about why he liked the words “asshat” and “asshattery” so much, and I was pretty sure they were on the blog. I was telling my daughter about this, and she couldn’t find it. Am I making this up? Were they on the blog or elsewhere? I did search and find some blog posts that contained the word, but no ramblings about how great the word is. Any suggestions about where to find this would be very appreciated!

  19. Posted June 24, 2015 at 11:32 AM | Permalink

    Hey Patrick! I have no idea if you’ll actually see this but I love your books. I love your writing. I wrote a song inspired by the chronicles and it would be an honor just knowing you listened to it. It’s just a spontaneous live session I recorded with some friends and we may or may not have been a little tipsy. I have no idea how to post it here through my tablet so if you don’t mind doin a little extra work to get to facebook, it’s on my wall Paige Lynn Scholtens.

    I really hope you like it… anyone else curious to hear it please feel free. I’m excited for you guys to hear it because you’ll actually understand what I’m singing about lol please, enjoy!

  20. brianv42
    Posted June 30, 2015 at 9:05 AM | Permalink

    Talkabout

  21. dropkickgina
    Posted June 30, 2015 at 11:55 AM | Permalink

    Maxi Pats

    I’m so sorry.

  22. Posted June 30, 2015 at 3:44 PM | Permalink

    MuseJuice

  23. rhackler
    Posted July 8, 2015 at 12:19 AM | Permalink

    I think you should sit down sometime with Glen Cook, Pat, and you can interview each other.

    I might be persuaded to pay for that transcript.

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