Robert D. Kaplan is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington and a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He is the best-selling author of 12 books, and his most recent is Monsoon: The Indian Ocean Region and the Future of American Power. Before talking at Zócalo about whether the U.S. is ready for the rise of Asia, Kaplan told us more about himself.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. Reading. On the weekend I relax by reading serious fiction, not nonfiction. I’ve been on a binge of reading William Faulkner for several weeks.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Just music on the car radio or in the hotel, which is quite nice mellow music. Normally I’ll listen to classical music as background when I write.
Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. Enjoying a glass of wine or looking at a great painting or just taking a walk with nice views.
Q. What surprises you most about your life right now?
A. How overwhelmed I am with emails, messages, and the struggle to get above that. Writing is about finding solitary space. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fiction writer or a nonfiction writer – it’s about being alone. That’s the only way you get work done. And it’s harder and harder in our era to be alone.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Traveling with my parents to historical sites on the East Coast where we grew up.
Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. Relax more. I’m too wound up.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace, because he is overwhelmed and inquisitive about the Napoleonic Wars and everything going on around him.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. I don’t tend to drink mixed drinks. I drink a straight gin or a straight whiskey.
Q. When do you feel most creative?
A. In the morning. I find I get stupider as the day goes along.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I’d like to be a diplomat.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. I’ve never been to St. Petersburg, so I’d like to go there.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. Books.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. Lawrence Durrell, the British travel writer who wrote wonderful travel books about Cypress, Sicily and other parts of the Mediterranean.
To read more about Kaplan’s talk, click here.
*Photo by Sarah Rivera.