Paul Holdengräber interviewing RuPaul at the NYPL.

My friends over at Art Papers recently ran an interview with Paul Holdengräber, the New York Public Library’s “Curator of Public Curiosity” and host of the confab series “LIVE from the NYPL.” Here are his thoughts on what makes a good interview, and interviewer:

My goal—as I did with David Lynch, Ed Ruscha, JAY-Z, Zadie Smith, Patti Smith, or Philip Glass—is to represent the audience as best as I can, their interests and curiosities. The question that I’m trying to phrase is—I’m hoping—the question that the audience as a whole, and some people in particular, may have.

…

Many people have remarked that the conversations they like best are conversations with people who have nearly no similarities with me. When I speak with Mike Tyson or Pete Townshend or Harry Belafonte, what do I know about so many aspects of their world? I try to be the spokesperson of a general interest that perhaps many people might have for that person. I try to create a common humanity.

Read the complete interview over at Art Papers.