Delia Ephron is a bestselling author, screenwriter, and playwright who has written about the foibles of family members and compatriots for decades.
It’s a predilection inherited from her screenwriter parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, who wrote Carousel and Desk Set. “If you said something witty at the dinner table,” Ephron recalls, “my father would say, ‘That’s a great line. I’ve got to write it down.’”
Delia Ephron has worked with her older sister Nora Ephron on the scripts for This is My Life and You’ve Got Mail, and was a producer on Nora’s film Sleepless in Seattle. Her most recent collaboration with Nora is the play, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which ran for over two years off-Broadway, and has been performed in cities across the United States and around the world, including Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney.
Ephron’s other screenplays include The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Hanging Up (based on her novel), Michael, and Bewitched. She has written novels for adults (Hanging Up and the just-released The Lion Is In) and teenagers (Frannie in Pieces and The Girl with the Mermaid Hair), books of humor, (How to Eat Like a Child), and essays that have appeared in The New York Times, O the Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and The Huffington Post; she also worked as a contributing editor at New York Magazine.
“My passion is mostly work,” Ephron says. “I am happy at my desk…, but I also love to cook, love to bake especially, am extremely fond of watching television, watching tennis, and going to the movies. My husband and I have an FWD (fluffy white dog) with six names: Honey Pansy Cornflower Bernice Mambo Kass.”
Q&A with Delia Ephron
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A quiet Sunday morning with my husband, the newspaper (containing only good news), and pancakes.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Having my hair blown dry twice a week. The curse of naturally curly hair.
What is your greatest regret?
That I didn’t have dogs my whole life.
What is your most treasured possession?
I don’t think I have a most treasured possession. I lose things and I break things. I really love this little stone carving that my husband brought me from Morocco. Partly because it’s from Jerry and partly because it is so whimsical.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Most marked? I am relentless, but maybe, really, an edge of hysteria. I’m the last person you would ever want seated in the exit row of an airplane.
Who are your favorite writers?
L.M. Montgomery and E.B. White.
Thank you to The Film School and Northwest Film Forum for their in-kind support of Delia Ephron’s event.
