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“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?”

An adaptation of her 19th-century-set novel “Washington Black” is streaming on Hulu. But she’s not totally comfortable with the historical fiction label.

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.

The creator of Bridget Jones, who grew up on Jane Austen and Jackie Collins, has no patience for “snobbery about escapist fiction.”

“You never know when you might need to read something coolheaded about death,” says the author of “The Children’s Bach” and “This House of Grief,” which have just been reissued, “or be reminded of angels and other majestic beings.”