PRINTQ&A with Frank Warren
Thousands look to PostSecret creator for solace and support
Courtesy of Frank Warren
Frank Warren reads every postcard that is sent to his home, sometimes with the help of his wife. He receives around 1,000 every week and posts 25 on the Web site every Sunday.
November 6, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Think of the last time someone shared a secret with you. It might have been shockingly juicy gossip, a hilarious confession or a persistent worry.
Whatever it was, it probably struck a chord with your emotions and distracted you for a while. Even now, you probably remember the most memorable secrets you’ve been told — and whether you kept them.
Frank Warren receives hundreds of secrets from strangers on a daily basis. Perhaps the outpouring of all that raw emotion has had a balancing effect: his outward demeanor is ultra-serene as if anything you could say wouldn’t faze him.
Warren is the creator of PostSecret,“an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.” On his Web site, Warren posts 25 postcards each Sunday — cherry-picked from the thousand-plus mailed to his home each week.
More than 190 million have visited the blog since its inception in 2004 and testify to its popularity. The confessions of thousands have spawned four books, including A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book. Warren also tours the country to speak about secrets and his project. He visits college campuses, museums and art centers, and his lectures are often sold out.
Warren will be speaking at MU’s Jesse Hall at 7 p.m. tonight. Vox catches up with Warren about his touring engagements, film prospects and, of course, secrets.
Vox: What do you think is the reason PostSecret is so popular?
Frank Warren: I think that people might come to the Web site initially out of curiosity or voyeuristic reasons, but eventually you find a secret that really speaks to your heart, and maybe it reminds you of a secret you’re carrying in your own life. I think that kind of self-revelation is really what drives people back, again and again, every week.
When you come to college campuses, you read unpublished secrets, right?
FW: Well, I display secrets that were censored out of the books by the publisher. I display them on a screen for everybody to see, and I share some of the funny, inspirational stories behind the secrets. I always allow time for students to stand and share their own secrets, you know, sexual secrets and shocking secrets and hopeful secrets.
Do you ever worry that the momentum of PostSecret will spiral out of control or become bigger than you intended?
FW: Yeah, I worry about that all the time. Thankfully I’ve been able to grow the project in a way that it still remains personal. All the postcards come to my home address, I read every secret, and I keep every secret. I’m still able to go through the e-mails I get and travel to campuses and share the stories behind the secrets. So at this point it’s remained manageable. But I do try to keep that focus every day. The focus to continue to grow the project in a way that stays true to what’s so special about it.
There is talk of a PostSecret movie. Are the plans evolving at all or are they still in the baby stages?
FW: There’s definitely talk about a PostSecret movie, but the process is very slow because I want to make sure that I don’t begin to lose what’s pure about PostSecret, transferring it from the Web to the screen.
Do you think PostSecret appeals to a certain demographic?
FW: I think it’s really tied to the Internet, and because of that young people are more aware of it. I get more postcards from young people and more from women than men. I think women have more interesting secrets.
Did your experiences volunteering at a suicide hotline affect your reactions to or understanding of the secrets you now receive?
FW: Definitely, I think part of the training for answering those phones was to always listen to people in a nonjudgmental way, allow them the full freedom to express how they’re feeling, and that’s a core value of PostSecret.
Is it difficult to cope with seeing all these secrets every day?
FW: It can be difficult, a little bit burdensome. I think in some ways, I’ve had to become the person who can do this.
How have you become that person?
FW: I’m sure in some ways I’m completely unaware of it. It’s tough to read sometimes 200 secrets every day for people because most of the secrets can be heavy and dark and talk about loneliness. So yeah, it can get a little burdensome.
Does the mix of secrets posted on Sunday reflect the array that you receive each week?
FW: The Web site is not a representative sample of what I get every week. I specifically try and pull out secrets that represent all of our different emotions – shocking, silly, soulful, an act of kindness, and arrange them in a way that tells a story.
You’ve compared fake secrets – secrets that have been fabricated – to literary works.
FW: Hemingway said that the best books are more true than if they actually happened. I think secrets, too, have different layers of truth. Sometimes sharing a secret can be a way of coming out to yourself about any number of things.
People complained that PostSecret was too dark, so you put lighter cards in the Sunday posting.
FW: I always try to listen to what the community expresses. I think it makes a lot of sense to do it that way. I want people to walk away a little bit changed but not a little bit heavier.
You provide your home address to readers. Have there been any negative repercussions from that?
FW: I guess the biggest negative repercussion was when my wife found out that our home address was going to be on the cover of a best-selling book. She was very upset about that. It’s on the cover of three books. I talked to my wife, and she said, ‘No, just three of the books. It wasn’t on Secret Lives.’ People understand the nature of PostSecret. So they’re very respectful.
Does your wife help with the PostSecret operation?
FW: She does. She just got through opening up the envelopes that all the postcards come in. Sometimes we look at the them together. Nobody is really as interested in it as I am. I have a fascination with secrets. They never get old for me.
What’s the most common secret that you receive each week?
FW: I think the desire for people to find someone in the world who they can tell their secrets to — that search for intimacy.
Your site is still hosted by Blogspot. Have you thought about moving it to a different domain?
FW: I’m not too technologically savvy. It’s just me. So if I hire an IT consultant, they could help me with that.
In the beginning stages, how did you find the motivation to post new secrets and update the Web site week after week?
FW: I’m always fascinated by people’s secrets. It doesn’t get old for me. It’s always had a real connection to who I am. In some ways I think it’s helped me explore my own secrets — secrets I was hiding from myself.
