Interview with Isaac Oliver, author of Intimacy Idiot

Tell us a little bit about your new release, Intimacy Idiot.

I’m so glad you asked! It’s a collection of personal essays and humor pieces — with a smattering of love poems, stories from my box office job, and subway overheards mixed in for good measure — about my big gay life in New York. It’s my very first book and I spend a few minutes each day sobbing in gratitude that it came to be. Get it and read it! Take it to the beach! I’m not a beach person but my book is! The cover alone will make you the most popular person there.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Julie Andrews.

What’s your favorite thing about New York City?

8pm dinners.

What are you currently craving?

An iced coffee. Air conditioning. The Chrises Pine and Pratt.

If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it?

Worrying I was wasting it! It’s a problem.

What is the one movie that you can quote the most?

Probably Moonstruck, which is a goddamn perfect movie.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

I didn’t receive it directly, but in one of those Hollywood Reporter actress roundtables I watch obsessively, Laura Dern said her favorite advice was from an elementary school teacher who told her, “Keep your eyes on your own paper.” I think about that all the time.

What’s your favorite essay in Intimacy Idiot?

“Love Poem for the Classiest Gay Guy on Avenue A.” I also have a soft spot for “The Dolphin from Dubai.”

Do you have a favorite local bookstore we can give a shoutout to?

The Strand was the first bookstore I ever went to in New York, and they’ve been very supportive throughout the book launch. I love them. Also, McNally Jackson in Soho and Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn.

Isaac Oliver is the author of the new book Intimacy Idiot.

Connect with Isaac
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