New York Times & MTV
Added August 21, 2012. For Nora Ephron, alchemist.
It’s no secret Nora Ephron loved
great food and that’s just one reason listening to her audio commentary of Julie and Julia (her screenplay) is a
joy. “I believe in butter,” she says as Amy
Adams (as Julie) pulls a pound of it from three placed prominently in the frig. “My mother always said you can never have too
much butter,” Ephron says. “It was her credo and it’s my credo.”
The recent death of Nora Ephron was indeed
a loss to literature, for writing of literary quality is what she did. I’d like to think somebody would fill her
shoes. Ephron was genius combined with
sterling education, and while there must be
more such women writing now, it seems for all the world publishers and movie
producers are buying and selling so much crap these days.
If we would stop buying the sensationalist, superficial, and meaningless movies and books we might force publishers and producers to start making better ones. I’m quite sure Ephron would not mind my saying so. Go crazy, she’d say. Be bold.
She also once told an audience of women at Wellesley, her alma mater, “Prepare yourself for a life of confusion and embrace it.”
If we would stop buying the sensationalist, superficial, and meaningless movies and books we might force publishers and producers to start making better ones. I’m quite sure Ephron would not mind my saying so. Go crazy, she’d say. Be bold.
She also once told an audience of women at Wellesley, her alma mater, “Prepare yourself for a life of confusion and embrace it.”
A great writer she was, Nora Ephron. She knew quality ingredients, she knew how to combine them, and she made magic happen, even as a great chef does—with knowledge, instinct, craft, and alchemy.
