SAUL WILLIAMS

INTERVIEW by JASON MALLORY

SM: Given that music is a collection of patterns, and man is a collection of patterns, what separates man from music?

SW: Business.

SM: Please recommend a phrase to speak aloud moments before shuffling off the mortal coil.

SW:

son of the sun

friend of the wind

life of the womb

reborn once again

SM: What is something you know to be true?

SW: God is a DJ.

SM: What would we know if we didn’t know trouble?

SW: Ourselves, a little bit better.

SM: In the middle of the interview, an anecdote is requested.

SW: First time I went to Utah, I grabbed my bag out of baggage claim, stepped outside where a drunk man turned to me and said, “I feel more like I do, now, than I did when I first got here”. Later that week, when we won top prize at the Sundance film festival the first thought that came to my head was the drunk man’s declaration.

SM: What is your first reaction to the sight of a man who looks nearly identical to you?

SW: I put whatever money I have into his cup.

SM: Please describe an impressionable moment from childhood.

SW: When, the 80’s group, the Thompson Twins told me I was an incredible breakdancer.

SM: If the street you live on could speak, what would the people who walk it know after hearing it?

SW: They’re lucky to be alive.

SM: How do you plan on celebrating your 100th birthday?

SW: It’s gonna be real dirty.

SM: What was the first thing you thought to yourself on waking up this morning?

SW: The future’s mistress is history’s whore.

[This interview first appeared in Scene Missing Magazine on January 27, 2005. Permission to reprint was granted by Jason Mallory.]