Q. How did you get into writing?
A. I always wanted to be a writer. When I was five and someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be one of those people who lives at the top of a mountain giving advice.
Q. Do people ask your advice often?
A. The Lemony Snicket books are coming out in paperback, and at the back of each book will be an advice page.
Q. What was you first novel?
A. Basic Eight. It was set in a high school.
Q. How did you come up with the idea for the Lemony Snicket books?
A. After I wrote Basic Eight, I was asked if I wanted to write a book for younger readers rather than just about them (as in Basic Eight). I thought of terrible things happening over and over again and thought that would make an interesting story. I suspected no one would ever read it.
Q. Are you working on anything else at the moment?
A. The Composer is Dead (audio book based on a kids’ symphony to be released by HarperCollins next year).
Q. What was your favourite music as a child?
A. My parents only listened to classical music. To this day there is a big gap in my music history. My parents didn’t listen to Neil Diamond. I’d have to say Beethoven’s Third Symphony would be my favourite piece of music from childhood.
Q. What movie would you take your son, Otto, to?
A. I wouldn’t take my son to a movie right now. His attention span isn’t too long. Maybe a very short documentary on trains. He really likes trains.
Q. What are your favourite movies, both for kids and for adults?
A. The World of Henry Orient is my favourite kids movie. Lair of the White Worm is my favourite movie for adults.
Q. Why do you like those movies so much?
A. The World of Henry Orient is about two girls obsessed with a second-rate pianist, played by Peter Sellers. Lair of the White Worm is about a snake high priestess trying to take over a small English town. They are both great ideas and they are expressed well.
Q. How did your son come by his name, Otto?
A. It was a name my wife and I both liked. We like that Otto is a palindrome because our son knows himself backwards and forwards.
Q. Have you ever published anything else?
A. I published a book called How to Dress for Every Occasion. I wrote it under the name “the Pope.”
Handler spoke to Livia Lockwood from his home in San Francisco.
