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Is it possible to be a good writer without being a good reader? No, I don't think so. But it's possible to love writing at any age. There weren't many books in the house when I was growing up, but I've always been writing. At ten, I even “published” one issue of a newspaper, writing out each copy in pencil on notebook paper, but soon scrapped the idea of being a reporter/publisher as way too tiring. At twelve, I tried writing a novel about a horse named Stormy and the girl who loved him. At thirteen, I began writing a spy novel, which I abandoned when I realized it would need to include sex and violence, neither of which I knew about. But I kept writing, because creativity came with my genetic suit, and it plays a vital role in my well-being. Writing is my form of celebration and prayer, but it’s also the way I inquire about the world. I often find myself in a state of rapture about something and rapidly coming down with a poem or a book. I try to give myself passionately, totally, to whatever I'm writing about, with as much affectionate curiosity as I can muster, to understand a little better what being human is, and what it’s like to be alive on the planet, how it feels in the senses, passions and contemplations. According to a report of the Independent Book Publishing Association, over five million American adults belong to reading groups. What, do you believe, is the basis for this country's love for literature and books? Books capture the heart and soul of a people. Books explore and celebrate all it means to be human. It's possible to spend nourishing time with a book (and its author) the way one spends such time with a friend. Because the way we get to know the world is through our senses, we love opening and holding and smelling and carrying and writing in and giving and reading books. Have you ever belonged to a reading group? I belong to a small book group—of 3 psychotherapists and 3 artists—that meets about once a month. What advice do you have for reading group members when it comes to selecting books for discussion? Make sure everyone has a chance to choose a book. What books are you reading now or do you plan to read? I've read 12 of Muriel Spark's novels this summer, and I'm going to suggest we discuss The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie next. If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only bring one book with you to read, what would it be and why? Well, the desert island question is always tough. I have so many favorites! Neruda's poems? A great big dictionary? Proust's Remembrance of Things Past? I really don't know. If you could have dinner with three writers (dead or alive) who would they be and why? Past writers: Sei Shonagon, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf. Living writers: Gretel Ehrlich, Cynthia Ozick, Deborah Tannen, and many more. Have you ever read anything you're too embarrassed to admit (except in this interview)? Nope. Favorite book when you were a child? If you have children, is this the same book you read to them? If not, what is your favorite book for your children? My favorite children's books—which, in all fairness, I've only read as a grown-up—are The Velveteen Rabbit, The Runaway Bunny, Charlotte's Web, The Bat Poet, and The Phantastes. Book that changed your life? The book that always changes my life is whatever book I'm writing. Words to live by? "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift-- that's why we call it the present." --Eleanor Roosevelt
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