Proust inspired interview of Andreï Kourkov
What became of your childhood dreams ?
Reality, one, main dream of mine was to travel and to become a writer, now I am all the time on the road because of my books.
What is your greatest (or worst) addiction ?
Cooking and agriculture – love planting and digging out potatoes, we have house with some land in the countryside.
What is your favourite swear word ?
In russian – mudak which cannot be really translated into English or other languages, but I use it about our ex-president Janukovitch who fled the country and about any stupid and corrupt politician.
Which word do you hate most, and why ?
No strong negative feelings about words, and again I stop my kids from using some of the words that are swearwords that don’t correspond to their age.
If you were a figure of speech, which one would you be ?
I would be unfinished sentance
Which side of your personality do you keep hidden at first, and why ?
Ability to become aggressive in responce to somebody’s aggression towards me.
What would be your ideal literary encounter (book, author, reader, etc) ?
Redjard Kipling together with Andrei Platonov (Russian writer) and Daniil Charms (Russian writer, father of black humor literature in the 1920-1930s)
What guilty reading pleasure do you indulge in ?
Diaries of writers. Love Franz Kafka’s diary and can re-read them anytime.
Which writer will you never read ?
I would not risk to promise not to read the writers whose books I don’t like. I can change as well as some of their lost books can be found, published and turn out to be excellent.
Which sound or noise do you enjoy most ?
Turtledove’s voice in Kent (UK) by the sea. Dogs’ chorus at night in Ukrainian village.
How would you describe your book collection in one word ?
Black comedies
What would your ideal epitaph be ?
He is not really here, but he is gone.
