Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Author of the Most Beautiful Craigslist Missed Connection Ever, On Why He Doesn’t Want To Talk About It

Last week, while that mysterious Missed Connection–the most beautiful Missed Connection ever written–was ricocheting around the Internet, its author, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, kept quiet.

He received a deluge of e-mail from people who wanted to ask him about the posting, or just tell him how much they enjoyed it. He didn’t answer most of them. He didn’t tweet much, either.

On Wednesday, Bob-Waksberg published a blog post responding to all the questions he’d been asked about the Craigslist ad, and explaining why he doesn’t want to talk about it.

First question?

Q: Can I interview you about your Missed Connection?
A: Nope! Glad you liked it, though!

Q: How much of the Missed Connection is “real”? Where did it “come from”? What does it “mean”? What is it really “about”?
A: Those are the kinds of questions I don’t want to answer! Glad you liked it, though!

Q: Did you write that thing just so you could advance your own career?
A: No. My career is doing fine. I wrote that thing because I wanted to write it.

Q: You seemed much cooler in your Craigslist ad. I don’t know if I like the idea that you are a professional writer and not just a person who was suddenly inspired to write something beautiful. The version of you I created in my head is kind of perfect and I wish I could go back to just believing whatever I already believed about you.
A: That’s why I don’t want to do interviews. But also, isn’t that exactly the kind of attitude that leads to falling in love with strangers on the subway and then never talking to them?

Fair enough!

Answers to more burning questions can be found over at his blog, Boring Old Raphael.