Of the TV and movie adaptations of your books, which is your favorite and why?

I like “Terms” best; James Brooks was relentless about getting it made. Debra Winger captured Emma’s character brilliantly, and I feel it’s Shirley MacLaine’s finest role. “The Last Picture Show” is near perfect, but not as ambitious.

And what’s your favorite movie adaptation of a literary work by someone else?

“Brokeback Mountain.” Its source material was a short story by E. Annie Proulx before it was a film. My screenwriting partner Diana Ossana produced it as well; her talent and taste are evident in the final result.

Whom do you consider your literary heroes?

Well, Miss O’Connor. Hemingway and Faulkner. And of course Tolstoy.

What kind of reader were you as a child? And what were your favorite childhood books?

I had no books as a child, until I was 7. Then I just read boys’ books — the Poppy Ott series, for example. I grew up in a bookless place. Had there been access to a library or a bookstore, I suppose I would have spent the better part of my childhood inside one or the other.

If you had to name one book that made you who you are today, what would it be?

There’s no one book that would define me; I’d have to name nearly every book that I’ve read over the past 70 years. Reading has sustained me and has been the one constant throughout my life.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

To me, the obvious choice is “The Sabres of Paradise: Conquest and Vengeance in the Caucasus,” by Lesley Blanch, who was married to Romain Gary, who was married to Jean Seberg. It describes the Powers’ efforts to do something about the Chechen Shamil (played by Edmund Purdom in the 1960 film version, “The Cossacks”), who raced romantically through places that even our drones avoid now. Shamil was a lot more interesting than the current crop in Kabul. The book is very readable; Lesley Blanch could write. Amazon can probably get a copy to the White House by drone in about 10 minutes.

You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

Count Tolstoy, George Eliot, Norman Mailer. If you require living authors, then Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon, Cynthia Ozick. And maybe an extra place for Philip Roth.