“My friend would like to bite you”: an interview with Robert Dessaix

Abstract

In conversation with Adam Ouston on 1 and 12 January 2015, novelist, broadcaster, critic, traveller, and one of Australia's most prominent and respected writers, Robert Dessaix, discusses his motivations for both travelling and writing. Addressing topics from domestic life to vulnerability, friendship to eros, art to illness, Dessaix talks about the ways travel contributes to his senses of self and home, how travelling to visit shrines, or embarking on pilgrimages, is both meaningless and essential, and the importance of the traveller's imagination. Revisiting major themes from most of his works, Dessaix acknowledges a continuing desire to encounter absolute otherness, and traces many of its (often threatening) manifestations throughout his writing.

Keywords:

• travel
• identity
• otherness
• friendship
• pilgrimage
• Gide
• India
• home

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Kester Berwick (1903–1992) was an expatriate Australian actor, theatre director and author.

2. For Gide's journal entries see Gide (2000).

3. Peter is the partner of the novel's narrator.