Author John Green took a selfie before the TIME 100 Gala on Tuesday, but he’d rather take one with some company.

“Is Benedict Cumberbatch here?” Green, a TIME 100 honoree and the author of The Fault In Our Stars, said in a brief interview during the gala. Told the actor wasn’t present, Green went said: “Then nobody. Or wait, is Kim Jong Un here?”

The North Korean dictator was not present.

“The thing about taking a selfie with Kim Jong Un is that after we take a selfie I’d do a citizens arrest,” Green said. “Like, ‘smile, you’re under arrest.'”

Green also dished on what he’s currently reading: Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, and a New Yorker article about cave diving, which is terrifying and a hobby he’s “eight different ways of uninterested in.”

Asked how he channels teenagers in his young adult novels, Green said: “I remember what it’s like to be a teenager. I think a lot about being a teenager. Everything was happening for the first time and it all mattered so much.”

Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.