What is art? Is it necessary? Why?
SM: Art is the expression of elation, observation, and imagination in a tangible, virtuosic form that delights fellow humans. It makes life worth living!
EM: It is one of the most joyful expressions of life. It’s all the things – movies, music, drawing – that make humans unique and sets us apart from animals… the fact that we find joy in things that are beyond mere survival.
Why do you get up every morning?
To create and experience art. Period. That’s it. I’ve learned that the planet is perfectly capable of spinning without my input, but hopefully someone on it will read something of mine, or watch one of my plays, and for a moment the world will spin a bit more slowly, with a little less inertia, so they can enjoy or contemplate it for a breath.
What’s the most important life lesson you’ve learned?
The world is limited by our understanding of it. Learn more. Stay curious. What you imagine can become your reality. Use your imagination well.
What is the relationship between your identity and your desires? Perhaps related, perhaps not: why is sex (un)important to you?
My identity is a shell that I wear like a hermit crab, and change from time to time. My desires are what move me forward from one place to another, and when they get big enough they inspire me to look for a new shell. Sex is important because I always desire it, and because being naked is a brief relief from the weight of wearing an identity-shell.
Where do you go to find sanctuary?
Into a song.
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.
What’s wrong with society today?
Too many hearts are closed. Hearts close for good reason, but over time it causes us to be defensive, fearful, and destructive.
Do you consider yourself successful? Why?
Now is an excellent time to ask this question. I do, but not for the reasons I would have said a few years ago. I consider myself successful because I’m living the life I want, surrounded by the people I want in my life, and am able to express myself both professionally and creatively. What a gift. It reminds me of a scene in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes when Kathy Bates hits the car belonging to a set of women who have been taunting her about being younger and faster. She said, “Yeah, well, I have more insurance.”
If you could give advice to your 15 year old self, what would it be?
I love you. You are beautiful. I will protect you. No one else will. Let’s get out of here, somehow. Take a bus to the edge of the city. I will leave instructions tucked into your windowsill. Share them with no one.
What’s been most important to your writing: education, or the real world? Why?
History, which is something of both. My history, others’ histories, the world’s history, untold histories, imagined histories…
