she observed for the first time that a room full of books smelled like dessert: a sweet snack made of figs, vanilla, glue, and cleverness

Is the way you will be buried important to you, or is it up to the people that will have to deal with it?    

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I've chosen, and let the people know who will have to deal with it. It's not that it's so important to me - I won't be there to care, after all - but that I don't want anyone to spend money on something that's so fleeting. Spend it on bakery apple bars for a party, not on a tiny, overpriced plot of land.

Is happiness more important than other states?     not sure that I believe in happiness like that. Not as a goal in life anyway. It's too long-distance, too hard to define, too fleeting. There are many traditions that believe strongly in One Day at a Time, focusing on immediate goals and needs. That's my "resolution" this year.

Why do some people enjoy knowing that something they like isn’t popular?    

Well, there's a difference between liking something whether or not it is popular (like a band you've discovered that your friends are not into), and then there's liking something because it is unpopular or obscure. The first is a sort of fact of life, and the enjoyment can come from the object of affection being personal rather than what everyone else is doing, and thereby expected. The second is an affectation, rooted in snobbishness or antisocial behavior. 

    I've taken a lot of flak for the movies that I enjoy. They are generally not something that most people have heard of, and they're not going to make any bestseller or viral lists. They will sometimes be on "best of" lists, though. They're not usually bad movies, just not the blockbusters. I'm not trying to be mysterious, though, or difficult to understand. This is just my taste. Doesn't mean I don't like a movie that lots of other people liked - just that that's not a criteria for my enjoyment. 

    I guess I'm just tired of defending and having to explain that, over and over. As if what I like makes any difference to anyone else's life. 

How would you spend your time if you were imprisoned in a room for life but had unlimited options inside of it, except for human contact?     what joy, what bliss! I'd read and write and take pictures out the window

Do you ever wish you were born in another decade?     nope! For whatever reason, I was meant to be a child of the Seventies

Have you ever lost or thrown away something that had sentimental value attached to it?    

of course. I lost a box of letters in one of my college moves, which can still chill me if I think about it too closely. I gave back some gifts that I should have kept, whether because I didn't think I "deserved" them or because I'm a hothead. I've deleted items from my phone that I later - almost immediately - wish I'd kept. I guess that's life, though: the tendency that we have to not realize what we've got until it's gone.

What disease scares you the most?     anything involving the brain and/or eyes

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the past?     this has been a major pitfall lately. It can be hard to "get out of my own head" sometimes - so I actively avoid it. There are so many things to do and enjoy and look forward to; dwelling on the past deadens that.

Do you enjoy the slow, seemingly empty moments in life?     very much so.

If you had a serious medical condition and your immediate future depended on it, how easy would it be to give up junk food and all your bad habits forever?     I would have a hard time with that. I'm a very snacky person. I come from a family of snackers, which doesn't make it any easier. The only thing that might help is having a food cop with me constantly, to actively prevent me from snacking.

Have you ever forgiven someone, but later thought that you shouldn’t have?     I laughed when I read this.... The list is long and the memories are dumb and painful, if I were masochistic enough to write it down. Maybe in my novel?

 

[from here; the title quotation is by Joe Hill, from NOS4A2]