Q&A
Q: What do you do when you’re not writing?
A: I can’t get on a bus or a subway without a book. I can’t go to sleep without reading. There are always stacks of books I want to read next to my bed. I sometimes I read e-books when I take a long trip, so I don’t have the weight of 20 books in my suitcase. I also go to the theatre and concerts, and enjoying watching movies. I take photographs, write poetry for adults and make art pieces out of collage stuff. I try and see friends and family as often as time allows. I also like to go to art museums and galleries. I love to eat but I’m not a great cook. I love to be on or under the water. I love Central Park for its trees and flowers and birds and ponds. I love nature and the first snow in winter and the first flowering trees in spring and the first autumn colors and the first warm summer day. I love walking and exploring everywhere. Even though I lived in New York City all my life, there are still some streets in my city I’ve never even seen!
First snow last winter on the balcony of my apartment.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: I love bright colors, especially on rainy or gray days. I love purple and red and bright blue and green and yellow. I’d say purple is my favorite.
Q: What is your favorite sport?
A: Scuba diving! I love all the fascinating creatures of the sea. I love being weightless in the water, too, turning somersaults and playing leapfrog and never feeling the weight of that 30-pound air tank on my back. My second-favorite sport is horseback riding. I try to ride in the different countries I visit. I love riding a horse along a beach — and sometimes in the water, too.
Here I am scuba diving!
Q: Do you have pets?
A: I travel too often to keep a pet at home. But I visit my family’s pets often.
Q: Do you have kids?
A: I have four children and they all are married. I have three wonderful grandchildren, five grand cats and a grand dog. We all live far from each other and I organize a family reunion at least once a year. Read about them and see their pictures in My Family.
At Disneyworld, daughter Annie and John and my grandkids: Dennis, Sharon and Chris.
Q: Are you married?
A: I was married to Marty Scheiner, my fabulous husband, for 22 years. He died a number of years ago.
Marty and I on our wedding day.
Q: Were you a good student?
A: Some teachers didn’t think I was. I always got an A in English and I was a literary editor of the school magazine. But I wasn’t good at Math and Latin. History was taught in a boring way, memorizing dates and bare facts. I loved to learn and I read all the time. Unfortunately I didn’t read what we were studying in school so I didn’t get good grades. If I had the chance to do high school over again, I’d do much better.
Q: Where did you go to school?
A: I went to public schools in NYC. My elementary school, P.S. 9 was all girls, except for the 8th grade. The old school still stands on the west side of New York. Julia Richman High School had 5,000 girls and looked like a prison, with bars on the window. It’s still there, too, and sometimes I pass it and get flashes from the past. I remembered standing in a line in the gym, where all the girls had to have their heads examined for bugs.
Julia Richman High School
Q: How old are you?
A: I never tell my real age, because on some days I feel like I’m eight years old and other days I feel like I’m 150 years old. Today, because I’m answering your questions, I feel young and happy.
Q: Where do you live?
A: I live in the middle of Manhattan in New York City, the most exciting city in the U.S.A. I was born in New York City, too. I live in an apartment house that has 90 other apartments in the building. I used to live in a tiny, very narrow house that inspired my book, MR. SKINNER’S SKINNY HOUSE. Many movie stars lived there in the past. It’s called the Edna St. Vincent Millay house, named for the well-known poet who lived in the little house a short time.
Me in front of the little house – only 8 1/2 feet wide
