Jamel Cato Up Close: 20 Personal Questions

[Interviewer] – Are you comfortable? Would you like some water?

[Jamel] – I’m fine. Let’s get started.

1. Where are you from?

Philadelphia. Where you’re from is an important part of who you are because it provides your original worldview.

2. Where do you live now?

In a leafy suburb of Philadelphia.

3. Are you married?

Yes.

4. Do you have children?

Yes, I have beautiful children. People who know me can see pics of them on Facebook.

5. How old are you?

The pictures of me on my website are recent.

6. Where did you go to school?

You mean college? I have degrees from Saint Joseph’s University and Georgia Tech.

7. What do you do for a living?

I whisper to healthcare databases and make them tell me things.

8. What’s your true calling?

[Thinks for a while…] There’s a famous painting by Lee Smith called Boy with Tire. It depicts a little boy holding a tire against the backdrop of a dilapidated neighborhood. The boy has this penetrating, haunting stare. To me that little boy is a metaphor for all poor kids in Philly. I had expected to do something with my life to make the dilapidation in the neighborhood go away – to change the background scenery of their lives. Maybe one day I'll sell a company to Google and have the chance to do something like that. Or better yet, maybe one day I'll get Google to move into the neighborhood.

9. What’s your favorite movie?

Where do I start? Love Jones. The Usual Suspects. Cloverfield. Swordfish. The Sixth Sense.

10. What’s your favorite TV show?

HBO’s Entourage, though I don’t watch much TV.

11. What’s your favorite book?

Where do I start? I read a lot. Anything by Ted Chiang. Anything by Walter Mosley.

12. What’s your biggest regret?

Ask me again when I'm old.

13. Tell us one of your New Year's Resolutions.

To start writing fiction again. Writing makes me happy.

14. What magazines do you subscribe to?

The Atlantic, Wired and GQ. But these days I actually spend far more time reading RSS feeds from my favorite websites, like TechCrunch. All newspapers and magazines—even the ones I really enjoy—are effectively dinosaurs watching a meteor fall from the sky.

15. iPhone or Blackberry?

iPhone.

16. Name someone you admire.

Cornel West.

17. What’s your favorite quote?

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man.”

18. Twitter or Facebook?

Facebook, although I'm on Twitter too.

19. What’s your favorite dish?

The person who first thought of dipping pretzels in chocolate was a genius.

20. What else would you like the public to know about you?

I'm a morning person.