The AV Club: Why do you continue telling such tragic and sordid tales? Wouldn't you be happier doing something else with your time?
Lemony Snicket: I made a solemn vow to research and summarize the entire Baudelaire case, and no amount of misery, horror, shame or tedium can dissuade me.
AVC: You've often urged your readers to find better books to read instead of yours. Could you suggest some specific ones they might like?
LS: It is difficult to recommend books to people I do not know, but I am unaware of any reader who would not benefit from reading (or rereading) Dino Buzzati's The Bears' Famous Invasion Of Sicily and Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation To A Beheading.
AVC: How did you first meet and form a partnership with your associate Daniel Handler?
LS: When circumstances prevented me from upholding certain promotional and rhetorical commitments, I found a writer who could more or less impersonate me, or at least impersonate impersonating me, impersonally.
AVC: Mr. Handler plays an instrument and makes audio recordings with bands, but says he does not have a musical career. Do you play an instrument, or have a musical career?
LS: I am attempting to learn the theremin.
AVC: What do you intend to do once the story of the Baudelaire orphans is complete?
LS: Indulge in a snifter of brandy before turning my attention to other pressing matters.
AVC: You've said you have difficulty getting messages out to your allies. Would you like to take advantage of this space to communicate anything to them?
LS: Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
AVC: Your books have been banned in some schools. Do you have any comment?
LS: Instead of selectively banned, I think my books should be universally discouraged.
