Laura Zigman

Laura Zigman has come full circle. The novelist grew up in a suburb of Boston and never thought she’d leave. When she did, she spent 16 years in New York and Washington D.C. before surprising herself by moving back home. “I was the least likely person to move home,” she said. “I was really miserable growing up there.” She now lives there with her husband and eight-year-old son and so far thinks “it’s turned out better than I thought.” Read more about her likes and dislikes below.

Q. What do you wake up to?
A. My son and a big cup of coffee.

Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Failure.

Q. What comforts you?
A. My son.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Willing to fail.

Q. If you could live in any time, past, present or future, which would it be and why?
A. The 60s. For the passion, good and bad.

Q. When are you most creative?
A. Late morning.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Computer stuff. Mac shit.

Q. If you could only take one more journey, where would you go?
A. I would drive across country.

Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. Something nine to five. I would probably want to be a psychiatrist.

Q. Whose talent would you like to have?
A. I would love to be a singer.

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Waking up on Saturday mornings with my grandma.

Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?
A. My senior year English teacher, John Harris.

Q. What is the most unusual time or place in which you have had a brilliant idea, and what was the idea?
A. Escorting Lauren Bacall for three and a half weeks [as a publicist] was what inspired one of my books.

Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. To get a lot done everyday.

Q. If you could have a beer with any person living or dead, who would it be?
A. Joan Didion.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.