Other than any piece of ensorceling entertainment with mad sparkly wit or a great plot twist? Snazzy spy shit or heart-melting political rhetoric? Well, there's a so-fast-it's-scary vespa ride along a cliff's-edge coastal road at sunset. Love travel in general, ideally involving cultural enrichment followed by something vigorous in a spot of staggering beauty. Then there are my many pairs o' dayjamas. What might those be? you ask. Well, let me tell you. You roll outta bed, shuffle down to the coffee shop and if the barristas can't be sure you slept in that outfit? You friend, are sportin some dayjamas.
Favorite living writers: my tragically unrequited true love Aaron Sorkin, Tom Stoppard, and I would say Frederick Forsyth but rumor has it he prefers fish to people. Amy Winehouse, in a pub or anywhere, really. I would love to see the best thief in the world in action. But most of all the dead dudes I write about: Marlowe, Caravaggio, Lord Byron...and uh, my various other kicked-it-centuries-ago crushes in school.
Currently smitten with Amy Winehouse. Like, round-the-bend besotted. But ain't no one-genre music fan. Doing my dishes one day I might blare Licensed to Ill, Shawnna, Bruce, Kid Rock's Cocky, or whatever my dance teacher's latest hip-hop mix happens to be. If I'm working, I might play the Requiem or Ave Maria.
Love to watch shoot-'em-ups/knock-'em-outs tipsy. Also get a kick out of anything about writers, like Adaptation and Stranger than Fiction. Most recently, Blood Diamond had me at the edge of my seat riveted. Was monumentally impressed it managed to incorporate a good social message and educational history into gripping entertainment. Most cherished of all time, the Princess Bride (I know, not a unique sentiment). Also adored Shakespeare in Love and the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair; that Sinnerman ending? Dazzling. Best pure action movie I've seen of late? Jet Li's Fearless. Why'd I just adopt Rummy's obnoxious speaking style? No clue, but shall drop it asap.
Most cherished, the first four seasons of West Wing. Dug Aaron Sorkin's other shows too. Right now nuts for Denis Leary's Rescue Me. Find it side-splitting, poignant, extraordinary. Never miss Jon or Stephen. Still watch 24 even though the pro-torture propaganda and Holy-giant-redwood-forest-Batman! dialogue make me want to hurl weighty glass objects at the screen. Currently obsessed with The Shield. Awoke the other day befuddled 'n bemused to've had an Xrated dream about the main character.
Re spy novels, Frederick Forsyth of Day of the Jackal fame enraptures me. I prefer some o' his less popular ones since you don't know how they end. Along with a good twist, his Fist of God has the best opening line of any thriller I've come across: "The man with ten minutes to live was laughing." Also dig his Cold War era The Devil's Alternative. Then there's Tom Stoppard. I swoon for him too, Arcadia most of all. It interweaves two tales separated by centuries so very deftly, enchantingly, I couldn't help but uh, how shall we say, feel inspired by, or maybe borrow is a touch more accurate? Or...ok fine, I cribbed his structure when writing my first novel about Marlowe's mysterious final days, last intelligence assignment, as yet unsolved murder, etc. Chose the title, The Intelligencer, because it was the Elizabethan term for spy, and the word intelligence took on its espionage meaning round then too.
Along with the people "I'd like to meet" and anyone who risks life/limb/comfort to help or save the rest of us, I'd say George Washington, Wesley Clark, the other Romantic poets, literary critic Stephen Greenblatt, Juan Tamariz a.k.a. He of the Best Card Trickery Ever, and Wendy Devore especially for her Tale of the Chicken Helmet.