Terse

The Reclusive DeLillo Speaks

Author: "I only smile when I'm alone."

Famed experimental writer Don DeLillo shoved aside his love of privacy long enough to give a short interview to The New York Times about his new novel, Point Omega. He told The Times that a 2006 art installation at the MoMA, Douglas Gordon's 24 Hour Psycho, inspired the book. The installation slowed down Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho to two frames per second, so that the film lasted a whole day instead of a mere hour and a half. DeLillo went back to the exhibit four times, deciding to begin and end the novel with scenes at that exhibit. The film's slow speed raised the "question of what we see, what we miss when we look at things in a conventional matter," and inspired the slow, spare new book, Point Omega. DeLillo also discussed his sober nature. "I only smile when I'm alone," he said. Although he gives occasional readings and likes to travel, he eschews email because it "encourages communication I'd just as soon not have."