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Q: Do you get the sense that everyone in this country has a kind of short-term memory? Not just in TV shows but for recent political history.

A: I don’t know because I never watch TV unless I’m feeling terribly snotty. I don’t ever watch it, ever. I read all the newspapers. I read seven newspapers every day. I see movies and I go to the movies all the time in the movie theaters. I don’t watch videos, I don’t watch DVDs. And I read books. And that’s all you have time for. You can’t do them all. You can’t be married, if you want to do those things. I’m not saying life is over with kids. You have to make a choice. I’d rather read. I’m not saying I’m right. But you can’t read all the time if you have three children. I’d rather have kids than have a TV, though. I’d rather raise kids.

Q: Do you have pets?

A: No, I have stuff. I’m scared of all animals trying to bite me. Someone else said this — I wish I remembered who, to give them credit, because I totally agree. Pets seem to me to be sentenced to a lifetime of human caresses. I don’t need to pet. They have enough petting in their lives. I don’t hate them, I don’t wish them ill, but I travel too much.

I do have a fake baby. I ordered one. My assistant handled the whole thing with the quote, adoption letters, but they make a baby. I said I wanted it to be angry and have bad hair. And they gave it human hair. It’s the scariest thing. I’m serious, I have it in my house. I just got him. It freaks me the fuck out. And ... its lips, its noises, it’s really... it’s like Chucky. But I’m in the new Chucky movie, so I think maybe Chucky should meet with it. I’m going to bond with it when I get home. Because I always get things that people think I should have, like pets and children and all that stuff. Really, it’s an art piece in my house.

Q: What’s the latest thing in your collection?

A: I have a Gregory Green, who’s the sculptor I like, who does installations. And one whole room in my house is the room of a mad bomber and it looks exactly like the minute before the police got there. It’s, like, the entire room. This was before 9/11. But that’s not all: I collect contemporary art, I have a lovely home. It just has some weird accents. I have Oriental rugs. It’s different than you might expect.

Q: Do you still teach in prisons?

A: No. It’s a very different time in prisons, now. The educational programs in prisons are not so liberal now. I do have two friends that I visit in prison always. I love to visit them. I have a friend in California. And one is a friend who just got out who was in jail for 25 years. I like to visit friends in prison. If you get busted, I’ll always come visit. It’s something I really enjoy.

Q: It’s a deal.

A: We all have bad nights. Anything could happen. When I taught in prison, all the people ... they certainly didn’t think they were going to get life, either. They didn’t think that night was going to happen.

Q: Do you know anyone on death row?

A: We can talk about this, but I want to talk about it seriously, not some one-line, shock value. I had one person — I wasn’t responsible for him getting out of jail, but he was in my class — and I thought he was better, and he killed two more people. He’s in prison now. He was over at my house in between killings. Not the same day, but you know.

But I certainly worked to get Leslie Van Houten released from prison. She was turned down again last week. She was one of the three Mansons. She is better. No one says she isn’t better. She does not just blame it on the Mansons. She’s been in jail for thirtysomething years because she met a madman when she was 17. I believe you can get better. And I believe being in jail for 33 years is major punishment. I don’t think that’s nothing. It’s a fascinating case to me. She could be right here in this restaurant, and eating with us, and you would never know. She could pull it off. I mean, she reads the New Yorker.

Q: She’s not born-again?

A: You never get out for that. They don’t go for that. That’s easy. She said to me once, "I wish I could do that." That’s the easy way out. You don’t take the responsibility for what happened. So I’m sad about that. She got turned down again.

Q: Have you thought of doing a more serious kind of movie about a person like her?

A: No, I would never do a movie about that. That would be unfair. I wouldn’t exploit her. And I don’t feel like I am now, because I said we’re going to talk about it and try to be serious about it. I would never ask her and she never would. She would never give an interview.

Q: What did you think of Monster?

A: I loved the real one so much [the documentary Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer]. And I was mad that Charlize Theron didn’t thank Aileen Wuornos too. Because I loved Aileen Wuornos always, way before that movie.

Q: Do you hope your film has a political effect? The last two films you made were during presidential campaigns.

A: Were they? That was a coincidence, because it was three years ago now that I thought this movie up. But I believe this election’s going to be a total tie. We’ll have anarchy. No one’s getting in this time, either side. I think that’s very possible.

Peter Keough can be reached at pkeough[a]phx.com