People always ask me what I’m looking for as an agent. Besides a house in Santa Barbara and a lifelong supply of Ambien, I usually say something like “prize winners or page turners.” Or, “I’ll know it when I see it.” Or something else equally evasive. I’m not trying to be cute, it’s just really hard to describe. Today, I read an interview with theater producer Sonia Friedman and she said, “I don’t want the writer to write what I want; I want the writer to write something that I didn’t know I needed. And that’s been the rule for me throughout my working life, to do with the thing that’s almost impossible to articulate, which is a about a feeling, about a chill, about a goose bump, holding your breath and realizing that time has stopped and I’m lost in another world, and if that happens, I’m all in.”

I’ll have what she’s having. What makes time stop for you?

photo: Sip and Feast