Don DeLillo is among the world’s most influential and celebrated writers, but only close observers of his jacket photos are likely to recognize his face — roundish and dark-eyed, with lowered eyebrows and a watchful, withholding expression as if he were the bearer of classified information. And so an author known for his privacy attends public events without undue worry. He bought a ticket to the New York Film Festival this fall and checked out Hungarian director Bela Tarr’s “Turin Horse.” He twice took in Terence Malick’s metaphysical “The Tree of Life” last spring, finding it “too grand, grandiose” at first, but “very powerful” on his second viewing, the kind of film that becomes an extension of memory.

Not long ago, he visited downtown Manhattan and had a look at the Occupy Wall Street protests.