It is silly to ask a novelist what her books are about, but Meg Wolitzer once wrote, “Sometimes they’re about marriage. Families. Sex. Desire. Parents and children.” That pretty much covers what it is to be human. Omitting only handguns. We admire her deftness with language, in her fiction and also: she devises crossword puzzles. If it can be done with words, she’s done it, as you can discover in her latest book, The Interestings, and in this conversation.

• PERSON: Nora Ephron
• PLACE: The Syosset Public Library
• THING: Online Scrabble