David Duchovny is well established as one of our finest actors. His nearly 40-year career has earned him Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and numerous other accolades—as well as TV series such as Californication and The X-Files, which are still binge-watched with abandon. But for this man of many talents, it’s simply not enough. As a writer, he has published six novels and, now, a debut poetry collection. In About Time, he gets very personal, addressing all matters of love, loss, parenting, and mortality. Herewith, he shares his key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airline: The one that got me here.
Airport: John F. Kennedy. It means I’m either coming home or leaving New York City.
Alibi: “I was in bed with my wife.”
App: Uber. Sorry.
Bag: A Patagonia backpack.
Bedtime: 9:30 P.M.
Bike: A Schwinn Sting-Ray with a banana seat and sissy bar.
Birthdays: April 24 and June 15.
Breakfast, weekday: Steel-cut oats.
Breakfast, weekend: Huevos rancheros.
Car: Tesla Model 3, sorry. Let’s say anything electric.
Child: Are you kidding?
Cocktail: Margarita on the rocks with no salt.
Cocktail appetizer: Fruit and cheese, please.
Couple: Boris and Natasha.
Date: Medjool.
Diet: Vegetarian.
Dinner, weekday: Something from Chef Monique.
Dinner, weekend: We take the chef out to dinner.
Disguise: A pandemic-era mask.
Dress: 70s casual.
Drive: Through the park.
Enemy: I’d be a fool to let him know.
Escape: Fire Island.
Excuse: “The devil made me do it.”
Flaw: Trust and/or procrastination.
Foil: Hypocrisy and/or arrogance.
Good-bye: “Later.”
Insult: “Fucking asshole.”
Kiss-off: “Fuck that guy.”
Nonfiction book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari.
Novel: American Pastoral, by Philip Roth.
Pets: Blue, Brick, and Rookie.
Piece of advice: “Nothing is either as good or as bad as it first seems.”
Saying: “Festina lente.” (Make haste slowly.)
Singers: Layne Staley and Little Jimmy Scott.
Toast: “Here’s to us, there’s few like us, and they’re all dead.”
View: The Central Park reservoir.
Wake-up time: Sunrise.
TV series: Gogglebox and the original Star Trek.
David’s Essentials
