Table Talk

At the East Village's Library bar, theVoice settled in for birthday cocktails with newly minted novelist (How Soon Is Never?, Three Rivers Press) andSpin senior writer Marc Spitz.

photo: Cody Smith

Spitz: What difference does it make?

Related Content

• Marc Spitz's Poseur Remembers a LES That No Longer Exists
  March 13, 2013
• Rebellious Reads: 5 Book Events You Don't Want To Miss
  March 13, 2013
• Ichiban-Tei: New Takoyaki (Octopus Ball) Restaurant Opening in the East Village
  July 15, 2010
• More on Korea's Kimchi Shortage; Latin Food is All the Rage
  October 19, 2010
• Dag Nasty's Dave Smalley, American Hardcore's Steven Blush, and J.T. LeRoy (?!) Will Be At the Strand Together Next Week
  December 6, 2010

More About

• Marc Spitz
• East Village (Manhattan)
• JT LeRoy
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Books and Literature

How old are you today?Thirty-four. [He points to an envelope on the bar.] I got a raccoon penis in the mail today. J.T. Leroy sent it to me. I don't know if I'm going to wear it. Do you think I need to wash my hands after touching it?

Your protagonist, Joe Greene, is in his thirties and working for a music magazine and has the name of a famous sports figure and is sleeping with 22-year-olds and really loves the Smiths. Why not just write a memoir? I wanted that much more freedom to lie. Writing a memoir, well, I think you have to have done something first.

Well, you just wrote a novel. That's something. They could just reissue it. "A memoir by Marc Spitz, the guy who wrote the novel." But it would be the same book. It could have been a memoir. It could have been Rock Journalism Confidential. But I wanted the freedom to make up characters and put words in people's mouths. The book I'm working on now has nothing to do with me, but I think your first novel should have everything to do with you. You should get it out of the way.