Интервью для timesunion.com. Январь 2011

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Weir-lets-r...

Q: Congratulations on your book, "Welcome to My World," published by Gallery Books. How's it going so far?
A: I'm so excited about the response I'm getting to the book. So many people are appreciating it and learning about me, and I'm even getting messages from people saying they're learning about themselves from it, so I'm so thrilled with how it's doing.
Q: It's a collection of anecdotes and essays. Did you sit down and write them specifically for the book, or did they come from diaries you kept?
A: I have a photographic memory. I can really remember almost everything that's happened in my life. I can remember how things smell and how they looked and the colors. I've just always been a very nostalgic person who remembers things, and as I sat down to write this book, it was a situation where I would start to remember stories and would slowly remember details about it.
One of my very first competitions I remembered while I was writing where I went to dinner that night, who I ate dinner with, what I had, how late I got home that night after the first competition and things like that. It's funny how the human mind works and how much we can really remember and how many memories can be unlocked by working your brain a bit.
Q: Did you write before this?

A: I've written a lot for my website and, of course, for school. I've written a few blogs and pieces for websites. I'm such a lover of ... language and to write in a very clever and interesting way.
Q: How did you decide what to wear on the cover -- was that your decision or was a stylist involved?

A: I ultimately chose what I wanted to wear on the cover, and the cat suit is custom-made for me by a great young designer in New York called Asher Levine, who is a great friend of mine, and the shoes are Christian LouBoutin. He's my favorite shoe designer, and he's actually going to make me a pair of skates.
Fashion's very important to me but I wanted the cover photo -- obviously I'm Johnny Weir, I couldn't be on the cover of my book in a three-piece suit -- but I wanted the cover to be very much what America and the world think of me. They think of me as this very flashy diva sort of ice skater that is gender-bender and all of these things.
I wanted that contrast because the story of my life is very simple and very accessible, and it's easy to relate to because I'm an all-American boy who had to work hard to get what I want, just the same as everyone else. People do judge me by my cover, and I didn't want my book to be any different.

Q: What do you like to read -- and when do you have time to read?
A: One of my favorite books of all time is still a children's book I read when I was little because of the imagery it gave me. It's called "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" and it's by Judith Kerr, and it's a story of a little Jewish girl and her family that had to basically run and emigrate all over Europe during World War II, and it's from a child's perspective. ... I also love and his book called "The Charm School." I read a lot of nonfiction, and I love history and to learn about Russia and the history of the czars.