GRQ is a dark, fast-talking spiral into the absurd world of crypto schemes and capitalist delusion, told through the unraveling life of a man who’s equal parts hustler and fool. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Well, because I live and work in the motion picture world, there is this proximity of art and commerce. That seems innocuous enough, but invariably, the commerce has a pernicious effect on the art, and maybe commerce has a pernicious effect on virtually everything else that we do as well. Whether that’s true or not, it’s still something that I ruminate on. I have seen many people in my world compromise their vision or themselves in the service of short-term financial reward. The thinking is, I will compromise now, but later I will make things right with the world, the family, or God, or whoever one must make things right with to get absolution. I am fascinated by this process. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew) Fair enough. But maybe this gaining the world buys a person time until they can figure things out, while we search for real meaning. In the meantime, we get to eat.

Marlon is such a compelling character. Was he based on anyone you’ve known or read about?

I know a lot of people like Marlon. When directing actors, I often have to say to them that they are the hero of the story, no matter who their character is, because most of us believe that we are either heroes or victims in the grand narrative of our lives, and characters should reflect that. Rarely does anyone think of themselves as genuinely culpable for anything that befalls them. So I think “Marlon type” behavior should be seen as something that is done in degrees by everyone. Some rationalize better than others, some disguise their actions more effectively, some are pathologically unaware that they are doing it, and others do it reluctantly out of necessity. But rare is the person who is not only pure in intention and in behavior. They might even admit this, but then want a moment just to explain.

I tried very hard not to pass judgment on Marlon, and although we can objectively be critical of him, I wonder how differently anyone behaves in a crisis? How many of us actually reject the precept of slightly corrupt means justifying a virtuous end? We probably should, but we probably don’t.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I work in the fictive world, and I recognize that fiction and narrative provide us with solace by suggesting order in a chaotic world. It doesn’t mean that the perception of narrative order is correct, but it is essential. Each of my characters creates their own moral universe, in which their behaviors make perfect sense to them, if not to other characters or the reader. The term unreliable narrator is introduced early in the novel, and it is essential to the understanding of the themes that I’m examining. Everyone is an unreliable narrator because none of us experiences the objective world objectively. Our ability to judge others is compromised, as is our ability to judge ourselves. The nature of this faux ordering is at the very heart of the book, as is the world’s essential chaos. It is the struggle between these two elements that is the space where we live, hoping to make sense of everything, and when that is impossible, accepting pretty much anything. Money? Love? Religion? Conspiracies? Metaphysics? Anything.

Nobody in GRQ really gets a neat ending. Was that a commentary on redemption in late-stage capitalism?

The short answer is yes. Although I would add this addendum, it extends beyond capitalism. I think most people’s efforts to build satisfying and rewarding lives are ultimately futile, and that little they do will ultimately provide them with spiritual succor, a resonant foundation, or give them a sense of genuine purpose and meaning. It’s a huge risk to build one’s life on bigger philosophic understandings that don’t offer immediate or palatable rewards, but building our lives on material accumulation has certainly revealed itself to be a form of madness. To me, my characters are essentially comic because it is the human comedy; the repetition of the same actions to which we are predisposed, with the same tragic/hilarious outcomes. If our lives were screenplays, we fail to do the necessary rewriting. Instead, we recast, thinking that’s going to change the outcome. I can tell you from making a lot of films, casting doesn’t change our story or our ending.

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