On your nightstand now:
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. I read it the first time years ago, before I thought of writing books myself. It's even better now.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Jane Eyre. I'm sure I didn't entirely understand it then, but I loved Jane's passionate struggle to become herself.
Your top five authors:
Herman Melville, Russell Banks, Mona Simpson, Walt Whitman, Toni Morrison.
Book you've faked reading:
I've never faked reading a book, though I admit I skimmed some of the literary theory books in grad school. I was never a big fan of deconstruction.
Books you're an evangelist for:
Moby-Dick and Song of Solomon. I think they each fit the definition of "great American novel," but they're also fantastic stories.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I don't buy books for their covers, but I do remember buying a book because of its size: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. It was so small it fit in my purse. Luckily, it also turned out to be wonderful.
Book that changed your life:
The answer for fiction would be a list that's pages long, but for nonfiction, it's easy: Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman.
Favorite line from a book:
I collect quotes. Here are two current favorites:
"Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous."--Toni Morrison, Sula
That loss is common would not make
My own less bitter, rather more:
Too common! Never morning wore
To evening, but some heart did break.
--Tennyson, In Memoriam
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I wish I could read Goodnight Moon again for the first time, but only if my son could be six months old again. Briefly. Now that he's an adult, I feel lucky that I can give him my favorite books and enjoy his experience of reading them for the first time.