Geoff Dyer on Obsession vs. Addiction, and the Unpredictability of Life

In this wonderful conversation from the podcast vault, Geoff Dyer and Paul Holdengraber travel back to a time before President Trump (summer 2016) to talk art, writing, Kerouac, and more.

Geoff Dyer on obsession…
I’m also a man of obsessions, passions, and hobbies rather than being someone of an addictive bent. I often think that the thing about the obsessive is that you bounce from one obsession to another as opposed to some sort of monorail type of addiction. It always strikes me that it seems rather normal to be interested in lots of different things.

Geoff Dyer on the unpredictability of life…
You’re not sitting there thinking, “Oh, I can have a stroke in the course of this phone call.” But that’s how sudden and unanticipated it is. The shocking thing for me was this idea that a hole could open up in the road as your walking along at any moment. The effect of this was to make me live each day as though it was my last and regard each day as a gift.

Geoff Dyer on Jack Kerouac’s On the Road…
There was this huge hunger on Kerouac’s part to write this great book. I think he managed it, and it’s a great reminder for me that the value of a life can never be assessed chronologically. He might as well go to pieces because with that book he had achieved everything he dreamed of. I’m so surprised by the way that book continues to work its magic on me. Every time I read it I wait for the disillusionment to kick in, and it never does.

Geoff Dyer on John Berger…
In addition to the books there’s the fact that he’s such a wonderful man… He’s a model of how to have lived as a writer.