Katherine Darling Revealed
About Katherine Darling
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What is your birthdate?:2/28
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Previous occupations:I worked in publishing, and at a museum in New York City. During college I worked at a winery in Virginia.
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Favorite job:Other than being a writer? Definitely working at a winery!
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High school and/or college:I went to Williams College, in beautiful, bucolic Williamstown, Massachusetts and Exeter College, Oxford.
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Name of your favorite composer or music artist?:This is a tough one--I love music and am always listening to something. Everything from Mozart to Jimmy Buffett to Van Morrison to U2 to Sunny Day Real Estate to Willie Nelson to Operation Ivy. I could go on. And on and on...
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Favorite movie:I am a big fan of the Coen brothers--Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, Oh! brother, Where Art Thou...My favorite of all these is Miller's Crossing. So, so good.
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Favorite television show:I am addicted to Lost, but am a season behind, so don't tell me what happens! I love a show that came on BET a million years ago called Frank's Place, about a college professor who ends up running a restaurant in New Orleans. They only made one season, but it is so good. Reruns of classic Julia Child are wonderful too--so comforting.
Revealing Questions
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. live life
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. Freshly baked bread, really good wine, and a lovely, long summer evening with friends and family to share it with.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. The dark--not the sweet darkness of a night in the country, the sky spiderwebbed with stars, but the pitch black of an elevator shaft when the lights have gone out. Not that I've thought about it or anything!
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. Right here. Or Provence in the early fall.
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. Martha Stewart--a self-made woman who DOES IT ALL. And does it much better than any of us could.
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. Good luck with that.
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. Ever going to bed angry.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. Cooking perfect sunny-side up eggs.
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. My daughter Annabelle.
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. I take things too seriously.
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. I laugh, mostly at myself.
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. My smile.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. George Macdonald Fraser's Flashman. He is such a delightful rotter.
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. People on their cell phones or blackberries endlessly. It is so unbelievably rude to be eating with someone and have them take a phone call at the table. Or send texts between courses.
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. I love to cook, obviously, and garden and go for runs with Annabelle in the country, and knit little baby things. I keep myself pretty busy.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Other than writer? Vineyard owner and winemaker.
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. A sense of humor and the ability to laugh at yourself, integrity, and a hearty lust for life.
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. Homemade bread still warm from the oven with a fat pat of fresh butter and maybe a drizzle of honey or homemade strawberry jam.
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. William Faulkner Robert Frost John Irving Sylvia Plath Christopher Moore Livy Wallace Stevens Ngaio Marsh F. Scott Fitzgerald Catullus M. F. K. Fisher George Macdonald Fraser Edgar Allen Poe J.K. Rowling W.H. Auden
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Write every day.
- Q. How did you come to write Under the Table?
- A. The antics I witnessed (or was a part of) in Chef School definitely deserved to be immortalized--and publicized. I had far too much fun to keep it to myself.
