This week, Jeneration talks to Matthue Roth, author and performance poet. He lives in Brooklyn and keeps a secret diary at www.matthue.com.

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1. Who are you?

My name’s Matthue Roth. I’m a performance poet and I’ve written two novels, Never Mind the Goldbergs and Candy in Action, and a memoir, Yom Kippur a Go-Go, about becoming Orthodox, moving to San Francisco, and discovering girls.

2. What do you do?

Mostly that. And I hang out with my wife’s stomach, although hopefully not for too much longer—we’re betting it’ll turn into something else. Probably a kid, but you never know.

3. What’s been the most significant Jewish experience in your life?

I studied abroad in the Czech Republic, living with a bunch of Finns, right after I became religious. I’d been learning how to do all the rituals, figuring out how to pray, for about five minutes—and then I had to explain it all to people who’d never met a Jew before, much less seen one mummify himself in black leather every morning.

4. Describe your perfect day.

This could just be because I’m in New York in winter, but it would involve sunlight and oceans. And, probably, arcade games.

5. If you could invite anyone to dinner who would it be?

Snoop Dogg. He’s hilarious, and he has a good appetite.

6. What’s your greatest fear?

Being alone. Running out of stories. My furniture coming to life and eating me.

7. You have 3 wishes, what are they?

I’d like to be around when we discover alien life. Not necessarily to be there when we meet them, but to just know that they’re out there. I think it would be really cool. And to have money—not a lot, but enough so I don’t have to worry about it. And for all of humanity to forget that we have the capacity to kill each other.

8. Optimist or pessimist?

Optimist. Optimist with a really dark sense of humour, that is.

9. What do you think is most over-rated in today’s world?

Travelling.

10. and what’s under-rated?

Getting there.

11. What makes you happy?

Good food. Love. The idea that G*d’s out there. Sex. Ultimate Spider-Man . When someone I don’t know tells me that my book’s made their day.

12. How important is your Jewish identity?

I don’t think it’s my Jewish identity that’s important so much as my relationship to G*d. And Judaism gives me a path to take to get there.

13. What really winds you up?

These days, nothing, really. Well, actually a lot of things do, but I’m trying to ignore them all in lieu of what makes me happy.

14. Favourite ice cream – and what does this say about you?

Root beer float. It says that I like bending the rules.

15. How will people remember you in the future?

I just hope that they will. Time is the harshest editor, and it’s scary to think of all the amazing writers who only exist in a few dingy, crumbling copies somewhere. And popularity doesn’t mean a thing—I love Lily Allen, but who’s going to be listening to her in 10 years, or in 50? At the end of the day, if a few people remember Candy Cohen or Hava from Goldbergs fondly, or they laugh at something I wrote, I’m happy.

16. What can’t you live without?

My wife. It’s cheesy, but it’s true—it’s the scariest thing in the world, writing and performing and not being sure who’s going to freak out, who’s going to get offended or offend you or decide that you aren’t worth talking to anymore. And my wife, she’s like my storage hard-drive. What happens, happens, and at the end of the day we come home and remember that we have each other as a back-up copy.

17. What’s the most controversial thing you’ve done?

Oh, man – you mean, this week? I’m doing a reading for a New York group called KinkyJews, and I ran into the director, who I’d never met before, on the subway. He was campaigning for Obama, and he recognized me. I was with my mother-in-law, who’s Hasidic, and he came up to me and whispered, “I’m Josh from KinkyJews, I just wanted to say hi.” Afterwards, when I told my mother-in-law, she burst out, “For crying out loud—did he think I’d be embarrassed, or that he would?”

18. What’s your greatest achievement?

Keeping it real.

19. Describe your relationship with Israel

I love Israel. It’s an intense place. Matisyahu said, “You know how, in the ’60s, everyone came to Greenwich Village in New York? That’s what Israel’s been to Judaism since we got started.”  It’s true. Fiercely religious, fiercely anti-religious, or the Amshinover Rebbe, who takes 4 hours to thank G*d after a meal—nobody’s passive about being Jewish there. Nobody’s passive about G*d.

20. Why did you agree to answer these questions?

I met Martin Dix when he was the lone participant to a writing workshop I held at the Limmud conference. The organisers, knowing nothing about the interactions of writers, sleep, and drinking, scheduled the workshop to begin at 11:30 p.m. Martin, ever the good sport, wrote the most crackling dialogue between himself and G*d that I’ve ever been privileged to hear—and I figure I owe him one, after that.

Find out more about Matthue and his books here.