PostSecret is arguably one of the most successful community art projects in the country. Started in 2004 by Frank Warren, PostSecret has now amassed four books, won five Bloggies, been featured in the All American Rejects’ “Dirty Little Secrets” music video, and the creator was named one of the top 25 biggest, brightest and most influential people on the Internet by Forbes. Whew!

Now on tour to promote and discuss “A Lifetime of Secrets,” released Oct. 9 and reviewed earlier this month in The Badger Herald, Warren spoke Monday to an eager crowd at the University Bookstore at Hilldale Mall. The author began his talk comically, “Hi, I’m Frank Warren. I share secrets.” Earlier in the day, however, the funny (but sometimes serious) man behind it all caught up with The Badger Herald to dish the dirt on PostSecret’s secrets.

Badger HeraldH: Hi.

Frank Warren: Hi. Thank you for being here.

BH:Of course. So, to begin. I’ve caught wind of a tantalizing rumor that PostSecret will be making a movie. Truth?

FW: There are talks right now. One of the great things about this project that I’ve discovered is that PostSecret is like a collection of secrets that I am able to share with people in different ways. I like to think of the website and blog as living secrets, the books as an archive where I can share the story of a secret, and in the museum exhibitions I can show hundreds of the actual postcards and get people to access the full tangibility of them. So maybe there are more ways we can share the secrets?

BH: Definitely. Do you have any other plans for the project once the book tour ends?

FW: I’m not thinking about any more books, and I try not to set goals for the project because I’d rather just follow where it leads. So far it’s led me on this great adventure, and I trust the journey to continue taking me in the right direction along with the secrets.

BH: Speaking of the secrets, the last book includes a couple of postcards in which the author describes how telling the secret to a stranger was cathartic. Have you contrastingly heard of any negative outcomes to result from sharing these secrets?

FW: I’ve heard stories of marriages that have occurred over PostSecret, but I’ve also heard stories about people who’ve been able to identify themselves as being in an abusive relationship for the first time through seeing a stranger’s postcard. I don’t know if that’s really a bad thing, but it is a breakup of relationships.

BH: I’ve wondered about the anonymity of the postcards. Of course no one can put their name down, but do you know if anyone’s secret has ever been identified?

FW: Actually, I will tell you one story. Someone mailed me a postcard that said “I worked all my life to get into Harvard, and now that I’m here I don’t like it,” or “I can’t wait to graduate,” something like that.

BH: Seems like it could be anyone.

FW: Well, the thing is, two days after I posted that secret on the website, I got an e-mail from somebody who said, “My friends and family recognize my handwriting, and I’m in all sorts of trouble, please take down my postcard.” So I did, but I e-mailed the person back asking that they please send me another message a year from now and tell me how the story ends. I feel that with secrets, even though you might feel this tension in your life now, it might motivate you to find a better fit.

I think that’s true for a lot of people, too, that sometimes we share secrets that temporarily we feel pressure from, but in the long run, sharing them can be the healthiest decision that we make.

BH: Have you ever submitted your own secret?

FW: (Smiling) There’s one of mine in every book.

BH: And I don’t suppose you are going to reveal what those are?

FW: No one will ever know. But I do talk about a very personal secret at my talks. The reason I share my secret is because it is really the motive for starting this project, and there is this sense that this project is a way for me to explore my own secrets.

BH: When you read the hundreds of postcards you receive each week, are there any prevailing themes or common trends you notice within the secrets?

FW: I do see certain themes come through, the same kind of issues that I think occur in major literature or films. So, for example, a secret about relationships, money concerns, hopes about the future, the afterlife, body issues or eating disorders, and, additionally, some of the secrets are very funny. It might be something you are keeping inside because it’s socially inappropriate to say, but in a postcard you can release it.

BH: Have you ever questioned the authenticity of any of the postcards?

FW: Well, I think that I ask people to mail in true secrets and I give them full anonymity, so people don’t really have a reason to lie. Still, a while back I was mailed a secret, and during the mailing process some of the text had been torn off the postcard. I liked the new meaning it had because it was more open ended, so I posted it on the website. I got an email from the guy who wrote me that secret and he identified what was on the back of the card. He said, “Frank, when I wrote that secret I made it up, I thought it’d be a good ‘PostSecret secret,’ but the way it had been damaged gave it a new meaning, and now it’s true for me.”

I think sometimes when you are dealing with art — I think of all these postcards as art — truth, meaning and voracity can have multiple levels like that. I think sometimes when people mail in a postcard it may be a process of coming out to themselves, and when they see it published they may feel just the opposite about it.

BH: Is there anything you’d like to add?

FW: I would say one of the things I’ve learned is that we all have a secret, at least one, and if we just knew what it was and could remember that, I think there’d be more compassion and understanding in the world.