I am very fond of Edith Wharton. She's quite high brow but also a great storyteller. My favorite is 'The House of Mirth. ' I also like 'The Reef.
Edith Piaf knocked my socks off when I was 8, but I didn't know what she was singing about.
I think Edith Evans is the most marvelous actress in the world and she can look beautiful. People who aren't beautiful can look beautiful. She can look as beautiful as Diana Cooper, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.
We were friends with Jonathan Demme. We were all down on the West Side of New York, and I think I met Kurt [Vonnegut] through Edith [Demme]. And then I was lucky to do Who Am I This Time? [1982], which was an adaptation of his short story that Jonathan Demme directed with Chris Walken and I, and that really cemented the friendship.
Now to me, Edith looks like something that would eat her young.
I love Edith Wharton. And I love old New York. Anything to do with New York.
In all my novels, a sense of place - not just geographic but social - is a critical element. I have always been drawn to the novels of Edith Wharton, among others, where social dynamics are crucial. Wharton's class consciousness fascinates me, and some of the tension in my books stems from that.
My name will be Edith Proir," she says. "And there is much I am happy to forget.
