MC: I was thinking that in almost any instance in Out of Sheer Rage where “Lawrence” appears, we could substitute, “Geoff Dyer,” or “self,” or “the meaning of life.”

GD: You could certainly substitute “Lawrence” for whatever your hobby happens to be, whether it’s building 1:1 scale models of the H.M.S Victory or stamp collecting.

MC: Does that mean my hobby is the self?

GD: Am I missing the point?

MC: I’m just saying that despite your insistence on being literal, the whole Lawrence book seems metaphorical.

GD: Lawrence is a prism through which ideas are refracted. I write the stuff, but if for you, the flu, like for Camus, is the Plague or something, that’s fine. Of course, there has to be some relationship between your response and what’s in the book.  You can’t decide that as a result of reading me, you’re going to kill seventy people in Norway.

MC: But could someone read you and fly to England?  There’s this great passage in Zona about reverence and I feel slightly self conscious coming here—

GD: —because you revere me so much.

MC: Do you revere Lawrence?

GD: There’s no point revering because it doesn’t get you anywhere.  It’s not conducive to inquiry. There aren’t Saints, but there are incredibly nice people. Reverence has elements of worship and I think we’re better off not worshipping people. I don’t revere him and I don’t revere his writing.  I love him and his writing. In these little questionnaires, when they ask whom you would most like to meet, for me, it’s always Lawrence.