Guardian interviewer Decca Aitkenhead on novelist/artist Douglas Coupland:

Only the day before we meet, he had been in a branch of Paperchase when a sheet of multi-coloured hexagonal wrapping paper so mesmerised him that, after a while, staff had to approach the spellbound novelist, taking him for some sort of crazed drifter. As he is telling me this, his eyes feast on the colours of the drawing room. “I don’t know if you get this,” he rasps softly, “but I feel like I can just stare at a recently opened bucket of paint for minutes, just . . . yeah.” For the colour or the smell? “Well, when the paint’s wet in the can, it’s just so – it’s optical, but it’s edible as well.” He gazes into space for a moment, looking dreamily blissed out. “You think, ooh, what would it feel like to eat?” It is at this point that I quietly put aside all the questions I’d prepared, and surrender to an entirely different register of conversation.

Coupland comes across as a fascinating and endearing character by the end of the interview. Partly because he is and partly because Decca Aitkenhead is a fabulous writer and interviewer. This is a very enjoyable read.

I’ve also read and enjoyed Aitkenhead’s interviews with David Mitchell of Peep Show, and American writer David Sedaris.

Her cool destruction of Matt Lucas is a joy, as well.