If you could live in your ideal society, what would your average day be like?
I liked the life an uncle and aunt built, in England. They both started their careers in publishing in London, but then moved to the countryside where both were more at home. He became a garden writer, an eminent one, and she often edited his work – as well as that of others. They worked hard in the mornings, he in a shed out back, her inside, her making a nice, simple lunch for the pair of them. They’d often play a game of backgammon early afternoon, then go back at it. A late afternoon walk would get the best of the day’s light. In the evenings, they often had company. They worked hard, together, on projects that mattered to them. They both had – and she still has – this curiosity and openness to surprises – that idea that Walt Whitman lifted from a Roman poet, that nothing human is foreign to me. A day with some good engaging work, some walking, some talking, some eating, some music, some of it spent alone, some in good company – that seems a good day.