STEVE TOLTZ
The Booker Prize-short-listed Australian author publishes the third in his “trilogy of fear”
Is humour the best weapon against fear?
No, stupidity and bravery are better. Is there a book that made you love writing?
Roald Dahl’s twisty and twisted adult short stories.
What’s the best book you’ve read? Impossible to name just one. Jorge Luis Borges’ Fictions is a contender. Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. John Cheever’s Collected Stories & Other Writings.
A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. It made me want to drop everything and live irresponsibly. I did for a while. It also led me to the writings of Krishnamurti and the idea of freedom from the self.
The book you couldn’t finish?
So many, but it wouldn’t be polite to name them. I know some readers who have a 100-page rule. I can’t go that long on a book I’m not enjoying. Sometimes I’ll only last a paragraph. That might seem disrespectful to the author, but we don’t have that long to live, so sacrifices must be made.
A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?
I don’t wish to have read any book, rather I’m thrilled I still have many classics left to discover. War and Peace still awaits me.
Your earliest reading memory?
An illustrated children’s version of Robin Hood.
How do you read books?
Fiction in paperback, poetry on an e-reader, non-fiction in audio but only when read by the author.
The book you are most proud to have written?
Probably Quicksand, because it was born from a painful experience, and it was a book about exhaustion, and I can’t believe I ever finished it.
Your favourite place to read? Anywhere near the ocean or in bed. If that bed is near the ocean, that’s the winning combination.
What book do you re-read? Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-ferdinand Celine.
What books are on your bedside table?
I just moved into a new place and haven’t got a bedside table yet. Piled up on the floor, however, are Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis, The Tidings of the Trees by Wolfgang Hilbig, Helen Garner’s Stories, The Collected Novellas of Stefan Zweig, and Steps by Jerzy Kosinski.
What are you writing next?
A novel. It’s too early to explain it, but there’s a character who falls asleep skydiving, an affair with an Uber driver, it’s about the ageing population and consciousness and maybe artificial intelligence or the lack thereof. There’s an annoying neighbour and a cuttlefish. I think there might be a pivotal scene set in Mullumbimby that features a poisoned goat.