See also: "Simon Says ... Merry Christmas"

Image Credit: Confessions of a Window Dresser

“Just when we were ready to begin lunch, she went and stood by the long sunny window. ‘Do you think we could draw the curtains and light the candles?’ she asked. Was she joking? Of all the outrageous, spoiled, childish requests, I thought. ‘Of course!’ I said, to conceal my irritation. I shut out my precious New York winter sunshine and proceeded to light all the candles on the mantel, on the table, and in the chandelier. Because of Greta Garbo, we had our caviar and vodka and cold-turkey Christmas lunch by candlelight in the middle of a brilliant Christmas Day.”
 
Billy Baldwin, Billy Baldwin Remembers

Image Credit: Persona Grata

​“Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento.”
 
Joan Didion, “Staking Out California,” New York Times, June 10, 1979

“I’m working on a novel and it’s acting like most such creatures—insists on being a wife. You poets don’t know how lucky you are with your one-night stands.”
 
Norman Mailer, Hockney’s Alphabet

Image Credit: Snapshots in History's Glare

Gore Vidal's copy of Hockney's Alphabet, in which Vidal was one of the participants, is available for purchase via the Nick Harvill Libraries store.