Christopher Moore Interview

We have so many die-hard Christopher Moore fans here at Copperfield's Books, we canvassed the masses to garner these interview questions. Enjoy!

Copperfield's Books: Shakespeare, huh? Tell us all about it: how you decided on Shakespeare, decided on King Lear. Were there other plays in the running?

Christopher Moore: It wasn’t initially about Shakespeare, it was about a Fool. I wanted to write about a powerless character who could speak truth to power. I considered Lear, because of the three Shakespeare plays in which a fool appears, Lear’s fool is the most prominent and most fits the “truth to power” model. When I talked to my editor, Jennifer Brehl about it, I sort of brought it up as either a “generic” fool or Lear’s fool. She immediately said, “Oh, you have to do Lear’s fool.” The other plays that might have worked were As You Like It and Love’s Labors Lost, but both of those are comedies, and it was more of a challenge to take a tragedy and make it into a comedy.

CB: If the Royal Shakespeare Company were to stage a production of Fool, who would you suggest be cast as Pocket? Drool?

CM: I’d like to see David Tennant, who plays Dr. Who. I listened to a lot of audio performances of Shakespeare when I was researching Fool, and Tennant was terrific in many of them. I’d also love to see James McAvoy or a young English actor named David Leon, who played a junkie in RocknRolla. For Drool, I’m not sure, but it would have to be someone very big (physically, not fame-wise) with an innate sense of comedy. I think casting the daughters is more fun, there are so many terrific British actresses. I’d love to see Kate Winslet play Regan or Goneril. Maybe Keira Knightly as Cordelia, but even Emma Watson would be fun, too. Brian Blessed as Kent. Mark Strong (from RocknRolla and Body of Lies) as Edmund. There are so many characters and so many talented Brits who have done Shakespeare and could really make this funny. Don’t get me started.

CB: So, tell us: how do you feel about the f@#*ing French? (Read Fool, folks and you'll understand.)

CM: I was in France for over a month researching Fool and another book I’ll be working on, and the French were terrific. Not at all what I was led to believe. I think David Sedaris talks in Me Talk Pretty One Day about how people see the French as arrogant because they don’t see the US as the greatest country on the planet, and I think that may be true. My experience was, if you are polite and make an effort, French people, even Parisians, will be polite and make and effort to help you. And you really can’t beat the bread, the cheese, and the art, as far as I’m concerned. (Although props to the Brits and the Italians on the cheese front, as well.)

CB: Any authors you model your profanity after?

CM: Not really. I don’t think anyone is quite as foul as I am. I never thought about it. I may get the Nobel Prize for Foul-mouth. English people can really get their cursing on, and it was fun to write profanity in that idiom.

CB: What's the deal with monkeys? They're cute, lovable, smart, tricky, but really...

CM: Actually, I visited two Gothic cathedrals in England where the windows depicted monkeys, and someone explained to me that medieval people were really fascinated with monkeys, so I had Pocket fascinated with monkeys. Also, there’s the phrase, “cheeky monkey” in the UK, for a comic or a smart ass, which Pocket certainly is, so he would have an affinity for them because he refers to himself as “the chief cheeky monkey for the King of bloody Britain!”

CB: What did you love to read as a kid?

CM: Sort of depends. I loved the Paddington Bear books, Beverly Cleary books, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, Mad Magazine and later, junior high, I loved the James Bond books. In high school it was classic horror, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, H.P. Lovecraft, and Lovecraft’s disciples.

CB: The location Pine Cove features frequently in your novels. Why?

CM: Pine Cove is based on a small town in central California where I lived for twenty years. Whenever I was broke or up against a deadline for a book, I would use Pine Cove as the setting because I didn’t have to research it. I also like the way rumor and point-of-view work in a small town.

CB: Are there any series you feel finished with or books you know you won't write sequels, too? (This way we can have closure, grieve and move on.)

CM: I won’t write a sequel to Lamb, although I get requests for it all the time. I just don’t think I can improve upon that story and no matter what I do, the people who like that book will say that Lamb was better. I’m writing another vampire book now, which continues Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck, and I’m certainly open to doing a sequel to my book about death, A Dirty Job. Lamb is the only hard line I draw. Things change, my interests change, and I do listen to my readers.

CB: The gospels, vampire-lore, death, and now Shakespeare: what's next?

CM: Well, after Bite Me I’m going to write a book about French painters. I know, how are you going to make that funny? That will probably be the challenge.

CB: And finally, where can I get your ideas before you get 'em?

CM: I have no idea.