Steve Almond [writer]

By: Julian Chavez | August 24, 2009 | Ten by Ten

Why do you think religion has caused so much turmoil in the world?
Because it’s a psychosis? Because it locates the ultimate responsibility for good and evil outside of man? Because it asks people to dismiss or hate or even kill people who believe in a different imaginary voice in their heads? Because it offers easy answers to difficult moral questions? Am I close?

Who is your favorite author and why?
Saul Bellow. If I could write a single sentence with the electricity of a Bellow sentence, I’d happily retire.

What is the single most regrettable decision you have ever made?
To get pregnant and not tell the father.

What is your definition of happiness?
A brief interlude during which I cease hating myself.

You can choose five people, dead or alive, to have dinner with. Who would they be and why?
Do the Spice Girls count as five people? Or are they one corporate entity? Assuming so, I’ll round out the group with Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, Sigmund Freud and Anais Nin.

Define love in as few words as possible.
Continual forgiveness.

What do you fear most?
Death.

Favorite quote?
“If you really want to hurt your parents and you don’t have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts.” – Kurt Vonnegut

Do you think there is life on other planets?
Probably somewhere in the universe, but I doubt such life would be able to play poker.

What do you consider America’s biggest threat?
An inability (or unwillingness) to follow the operating instructions Jesus Christ set out in his Sermon on the Mount.

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