Fucking text me back

Samantha Harris

You are so vain

Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, 

Muse, siren 

and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Forgetting. Or, worse yet, not recognizing who my real friends are.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“O.K., I’m leaving then!”

When and where were you happiest?
Living in London in the late 60s—setting my hair with beer cans and shopping for shoes in Knightsbridge.

What are your favorite names?
Gérard Depardieu. Dutch.

To be, or not to be: that is the question

There's always that magazine's column that you can't live without, the one that you always read first and held the balance of power when you decided to subscribe at that particular magazine...I have quite a few (and we can talk about that later) and this is definitely one of that...
Italian Dmagazine has a page that contains only questions. Silly, smart, existential, witty, stupid simple questions. You know I like to read about what interesting people answer when interviewed... but sometimes what we need is just a question.
Here you'll find some of them...

-If you had the possibility would you take back those "I love you"'s you said to people that, with the wisdom of hindsight you were not really in love with?
-Do you love a stranger, since when?
-Have you counted the potential kisses you missed?
-Do you have a mission? Can we know it?
-Do you know anyone that hates cangaroos?
-Do you have the face that you deserve or the one you can afford?

 

Helen Gurley Brown: I address everybody as "pussycat"

Helen Gurley Brown

Just a small-town girl from Arkansas, Helen Gurley Brown became editor of Cosmopolitan and liberated women's magazines with her spunk and sexual brashness. Proving that good girls may go to heaven but bad girls go everywhere. 

Helen Gurley Brown with her husband, David Brown

Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Cleopatra. She was a good boss and had a good love life.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Not doing what they say they will when I need them to do it. Not returning phone calls is another.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I address everybody as "pussycat," but nobody minds, and it's a nice term of endearment.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
My husband's overtipping. He carries only $20 bills in his pocket.

When and where were you happiest?
I'd say right now. I'm married to a pussycat and still have a good job with the Hearst Corporation. There are now 59 editions of Cosmopolitan all over the world.

Where would you like to live?
Exactly where I am living—the Beresford Apartments, on Central Park West and 81st Street. We have the top four floors of a tower apartment. I'm slightly prejudiced, but I think it's the best apartment in New York.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Hair color. It costs $136 to color, shampoo, and set, but I'm too old to be running around with white hair. Chanel suits are another indulgence.

Who are your favorite writers?
William Shakespeare, Nora Ephron, and Joan Didion.

What is your motto?
"Get up and do it if it needs to be done, even if you hate it!"

a 1970 Cosmopolitan cover

 the whole interview here

I will not take "but" for an answer: Norman Kingsley Mailer

Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayst, poet, playwright, screenwriter and film director.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Restaurants.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
Forgive me. I'll skip this laundry list.

What is your greatest regret?
The memory of the books I promised to write and didn't.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Wasting my days.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Beauty, mystery, wit, and the inner superiority to be above political correctness.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Let's say not the hero but the protagonist from whom I learned the most. That might be Anna Karenina.

I want to be the woman he likes...

The whole interview here