BEST AUTHOR BEST : TILDA SWINTON [ 2 ]

.-  DO you count any books as guilty pleasures?

None. Books and guilt don't stand on the same ground. They cancel each other out.

.-  You've had longstanding collaborations with many artists and directors. Who has given you the best book recommendations?

Derek Jarman used to feed me James Hillman in the early days before I understood quiet why. And David Bowie introduced me to Georges Rodenbach's '' Brages-la-Morte ,'' all goosebumps and intense melancholy for which I am very grateful once a year when I reread it.

.-  What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?

 '' Unve Vie Exemplaire,'' by Floc'h. That is a book that we might do well to issue with each birth certificate : a primer to living a fully responsive and happy life.

.-  What book would you elevate to the canon, and what book would  you remove?

Not canon-savvy, sorry, but P.G. Wodehouse ever gets left out, that's not right.

.-  Which character from literature would you most like to play?

Most people dreamed up by Muriel Spark.

.-  When and why did you put together the '' Notes for Radical Living '' you include in '' Ongoing ''?

I was asked by a friend for a sentence of encouragement last year and somehow it just slipped out.

.-  Tucked into one conversation in the book, you quote a line from '' Talladega Nights.'' Are you a fan?

Die-hard.

.-  When are you writing a memoir?

Not.

.-  Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

Sure. Isn't that what boarding school was invented for?

The World Students Society thanks Scott Heller and The New York Times.