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Richard Goodwin, an adviser to presidents, “was more interested in shaping history,” she says, “and I in figuring out how history was shaped.” Their bond is at the heart of her new book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s.”

“I regret that I never met Hilary Mantel,” says the Booker-winning Scottish novelist, whose most recent book, “Young Mungo,” is now out in paperback. “I would be delighted with three of her.”

“Only then can I surrender to the spell of reading,” says the director of “Glory” and the author of “Hits, Flops and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood.”

“Have you ever smoked a joint and read Toni Morrison’s ‘Sula’ in a very hot bath, reveling in a single, rich paragraph for what feels like an hour?” says the novelist, whose new book is “Time’s Mouth.” “If not, may I suggest you try it?”

“I get real geek joy out of learning something new,” says the imprint’s vice president and publisher. She’s proud to have broadened the definition of a classic during her tenure.

Eighteen books in (the latest is “Every Tom, Dick & Harry”), she still recalls an editor’s note urging more action: “Could someone here please pass the potatoes?”

Among her other favorites: “Backlash” and a Charles Laughton biography. The Oscar-winning actress just wrote — and illustrated — her first children’s book.

Her own is called “Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me,” which follows anthologies that grew out of founding the Well-Read Black Girl book club.

“I’m very comfortable with the level of ambition I have for my books,” says the ubiquitous BBC talk show host, who calls “Frankie” his “first happy romance.”

It’s among the more playful matters on his mind in “Shattered,” a memoir of the injury that took away his ability to turn pages — but not his hunger to tell a story.