Interviews and AudioThis page links to many print, video and audio interviews. Explore all the way down the page!
Published interview collections:
Newsprint / Magazine Interviews:
2008
2006
- Ostap Karmodi's Russian interview with DFW. The New York Review of Books has an edited version, A Frightening Time in America: An Interview with David Foster Wallace, and now Ostap Karmodi has posted the full text on his blog.
2003
- October 26 2003, Approaching Infinity by Caleb Crain. Boston.com (Audio and back story of the interview here)
- La Times, 27 Jan 2003, Literary star, out of the limelight Archive.org (fixed Feb 2010)
- Jan, 2003: Kultur Interview
- The Believer Interview
- July 12 Mischief at Boston Pheonix Archive.org
- Chicago Newspapers, The infinite jester: Author David Foster Wallace's unique brand of humor a mixed blessing by Mitch Pugh June 99 (via Archive.org)
- Publisher's Weekly - In the Company of Creeps May 99 (pops up a print window)
- Los Angeles Literary Supplement May 99 (Archive.org link)
- Brief Interview with a Five Draft Man Spring 1999 Amherst Magazine interview.
- Laura Miller's excellent Salon Interview via Archive.org
- Oregon Voice April 98 Archive.org (fixed Feb 2010)
- 1998 Four writers sitting around talking including DFW. From Oregon Live: Frontlist Archive.org
- Boston Pheonix Transcript Interviewed by Tom Scocca Feb 98 - Full unedited transcript posted on Slate.com Nov 2011 by Tom Scocca.
- July 30 Book Magazine, David Foster Wallace warms up by Patrick Arden ( Book Magazine interview with DFW. Archive.org)
1997
- Reading, music/literary critic Tom Laskin interviews Wallace by telephone for Madison's Isthmus, a city weekly Feb 97
- Minnesota Daily Interview Feb 97 (David Wiley has posted it in full to his blog, That Certain Slant Feb 13)
- The Wisconsin State Journal dispatched their religion writer & spy-novel reviewer William R. Wineke to Madison's Sheraton Inn to interview DFW Feb 97
- Wallace's appearance on PBS television's The Charlie Rose Show (3.27.97) [See section below for video]
- The Harvard Advocate Interview Spring 1997.
- IRC Chat Transcript (May 1996) Archive.org
- Boston Pheonix March 1996
- Bookwire on Wallace Broken Link
- At Stim.com by Valerie Stivers
- New York Times Sunday Magazine (24/3/96) piece on Wallace
- QPB talks to David Foster Wallace (Sep 1996)
1993
- The Whiskey Island Magazine interview was conducted by Hugh Kennedy and Geoffrey Polk and printed in the Spring 1993 edition of the Whiskey Island Magazine. It is made available with the magazine's permission.
Download the .pdf here: 1993 Whiskey Island Magazine DFW Interview. (Approx 12mb .zip of .jpg scans)
Small (36kb) .pdf here: Small 1993 Whiskey Island Magazine DFW Interview - July 15 Classic DFW interview at Dalkeyarchive.com - A Conversation with David Foster Wallace By Larry McCaffery (Alternate link 1 Alternate link 2 )
1987
- Bill Katovsky's interview from the April 1987 issue of Arrival and can be found over at McSweeney's - David Foster Wallace: A Profile.
Video Interviews:
2009
-
University of Arizona Poetry Centre Remembrance. Audio 1st May 2009.
-
Uploaded / appear online 1999 (Recording date unknown) One of a series of short interviews (apparently available online sometime soon) with Wallace by Bryan Garner, this one is about 'Prior To'.
2003
- ZDF Interview - A Short version screened on zdf, here is an English translation. Later an unedited/extended version was posted online by zdf. All 84mins can be viewed on YouTube (part 1of 9) 9 parts. Full video link.
- David Foster Wallace on the Charlie Rose show: 17th May 1996 (highlights) and 27th March 1997 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
Audio Interviews and Documentaries:
Ryan Walsh's DFW audio collection The David Foster Wallace Audio Project, includes much of the audio below and more (but, alas, some of it undated and without reference to the original location). Update Feb '13 - Creating The David Foster Wallace Audio Project.
2011
- Endnotes: David Foster Wallace documentary airdate 6/2/2011 listen via YouTube.
- Lannan Foundation Everything and More: A Tribute to David Foster Wallace. Featuring David Lipsky, Rick Moody, Joanna Scott and Michael Silverblatt 16/3/2011.
2010
- To The Best of Our Knowledge Telling Addiction Marshall Boswell reads from Infinite Jest, Approx 22:35
2009
-
Video highlights of the University of Arizona / Sonora Review / Poetry Centre Remembrance. Full audio link. 1st May 2009.
- To The Best of Our Knowledge David Foster Wallace Special May 2009. Amy Wallace-Havens.
2008
- KCRW Silverblatt Memorial shows (Sep and Nov)
2006
- KCRW Silverblatt Interview 2nd March.
- Wallace speaking with NPR on August 19th, 2006, about his Roger Federer essay.
2005
- Wisonsin Public Radio To The Best of Our Knowldge Interview. April 2005.
2004
- David Kipen interviews David Foster Wallace in San Francisco for City Arts & Lectures in 2004. (Direct .mp3)'
- TTBOOK Oblivion Interview.
- Unedited Oblivion Interview from TTBOOK (via TTBOOK in the audio extras section). (Alt link DFW Audio project)
- 25th June 2004, Michael Goldfarb interviews David Foster Wallace for The Connection on 90.9 wbur. (Direct mp3 link)
2003
- October 26, full audio of the Approaching Infinity interview by Caleb Crain. Boston.com
- KCRW Silverblatt Interview 7th May
- May 8 2003: John DAgata (Editor of The Next American Essay, including 'Ticket to Fair' by DFW) interviewed on Michael Silverblatt's Bookworm show. Including a guest reading by DFW.
- Wallace interview with NPR's Talk of the Nation, Infinity, about Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity.
2001
- March 2001 90.9 wbur radio interview with David Foster Wallace and Bryan Garner. (Direct mp3 link) They discuss language, Garner's Modern American Usage and Wallace's review of it in Harper's, Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the wars over usage
2000
- KCRW Silverblatt Interview 2nd August
- December 2000. DFW readings available at the Lannan Archives. He reads 4 things, 3 awesome fragments of unpublished material (that ended up in The Pale King) as well as Incarnations of Burned Children. The recordings are of extremely high quality and very funny!
1999
- KCRW Silverblatt Interview 12th August
- Interview with Lewis Frumkes from 1999
1997
-
Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? from April 5, 1997. Whad'Ya Know podcast Soundcloud page. Transcript available here at Bob Wake's, "Infinite Jest: Reviews, Articles, and Miscellany".
-
KCRW Silverblatt Interview 14th May
- Another Supposedly Fun Thing Essays from TTBOOK Program "Pursuit of Pleasure" (via TTBOOK in the audio extras section). (Alt link DFW Audio project)
1996
- David Foster Wallace on The Connection with Chris Lydon, February 1996 (uncovered June 2014)
- Wallace interviewed by Leonard Lopate in March 1996 for WNYC
- KCRW Silverblatt Interview 11th April
- Infinite Jest interview from TTBOOK Program "Unwholesome Entertainment" (via TTBOOK in the audio extras section). (Alt link DFW Audio project)
Further Audio Resources:
Interviews at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project
Readings at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project
Remembrances at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project
Published interview collections:
Orphaned Links - Either no longer relevant or here in the hope that someone has a working copy...
-
Audio at Eyeshot.net. There are a number of links to DFW audio.
-
Audio Excerpts of DFW reading from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: "A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life" and "Death Is Not The End" are read.
-
September 13 Audio interview at The Afternoon Magazine. Scroll down to the June 16 Interview to find it. Archive.org
Broken Links or Finds? Report them here.
(Kind thanks to pyrocow for tracking down some broken links on archive.org, Bill for alerting me to more broken links and Dylan McCombe for finding the Book Magazine interview in full. 2014 - Thanks Stevan and Emma.)
