David Pagel, an art critic and associate professor of art theory and history at Claremont Graduate University, grew up in Wisconsin before heading to California for college, and to the East Coast for graduate school. “But I beat a hasty retreat right back to California, because it’s such a fantastic place to be,” he said. Below, Pagel takes our In The Green Room Q&A.

Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?

A. At home playing with my kids.

Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?

A. Nothing, actually. I’ll try anything once.

Q. What music have you listened to today?

A. Absolutely nothing. I’m a silence person. I like to listen to the wind blowing into the car or, when I’m riding my bike, the sounds of the street.

Q. When do you feel most creative?

A. In the early morning. I love to get up early and write, before I’ve talked to anyone, before anyone else’s words are in my head, and have that emptiness, that silence. The mornings are great for producing things and afternoons are great for editing things.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. Purple.

Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?

A. Slothrop from Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Is that sufficiently nerdy?

Q. What is your favorite thing about Los Angeles?

A. I love how you can feel like you’re discovering things. There are so many different micro-communities and micro-places. There’s so much private public space.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A. A race car driver, then a doctor, then a psychiatrist, and then an art critic, believe it or not.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?

A. I have really fine bicycles. I have a Pinarello Dogma made of magnesium, a Dario Pegoretti made of scandium, and a bike I had as a graduate student 26 years ago that I just got restored.

Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?

A. A philanthropist.

Q. Whose talent would you like to have?

A. Da Vinci’s would satisfy me.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?

A. It would be a fight between two of my bicycles. I think the magnesium one would win.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. John F. Kennedy. I think he’d be fun.

To read about Pagel’s interview with Salomon Huerta, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.