FYAHMIX

Do you feel guilty?Of course not, but it's been 13 years since I wrote that book Surely the texture of urban discontent must have changed. At the very least they should be alienated .You have a tremendous ability to observe the interesting and enchanting in the everyday... Why thank you.What do you think of cardboard?I think you're being facetious, but you shouldn't be. In the art world there isn't a single mode of expression where cardboard isn't a big help, from model making to shipping to Warhol's Brillo Box. Oddly, when I was involved in a film project, I had to figure out what people would be framing and putting on their walls in 50 years, flattened cardboard boxes was the winning idea They're quite beautiful.

And framed, they're stunning.People say that Vancouver is the best American city that America doesn't have. What do you think they mean and do you agree?American? Vancouver? I think not. Vancouver confuses Americans because it has all the things they're trained to fear and fight (pot, strippers who take it all off, gay weddings, a non-litigious aura...) and yet for livability, Vancouver is far ahead of the US's nearest contender, (say, Seattle), and has none of the infrastructure nightmares. Where is the fear? Where are the locusts and toads falling from the sky?You're at a house party: where's your favourite spot to loiter?I don't go to parties, can't stand them. Clubs, either - to the point where I can't even consider answering this question. It's like asking someone Amish what their favourite video game is.Your books always have a very youthful feel. At what point do you think you'll start writing about people whose primary concerns are mortgages and tax returns?Hmm...

Did you read All Families Are Psychotic? All that and more.You're confined to a cell for a couple of days with a book of your choice. What would it be and why?Probably The Andy Warhol Diaries, because then I could at least pretend I was having real days.What's next?Old age Neglect Death And right now, a trip to the liquor store to get some boxes 'Hey Nostradamus!' is published by Flamingo, £15.99. Across the centuries, the gradual mapping of the world has inevitably reflected the prevailing mentalities of its inhabitants. From fantastical shadowlands to the scientific mapping of terrain, the process has been one of fits and starts. Much was unknown, unexplored, unchartable, but the desire to create a unified geographical truth meant that maps stitched together knowledge, guesswork, religious beliefs and mythology into artistically satisfying but fanciful works. What was lacking was a way of seeing so many lands as constituents of a single world, a rational consistency that would allow for comparison.