Anne-Marie O’Connor is the author of The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece. A former Los Angeles Times reporter, she now lives in Mexico City and writes for The Washington Post. Before telling the story of a Klimt portrait that was stolen by the Nazis and then fought over for years, she sat down in the green room to talk about tacos, election excitement, and why she recently considered buying a karaoke machine.
Q. What’s your favorite taco filling?
A. That’s a really good question. Probably tacos al pastor, with lots of hot sauce. I have a tolerance for hot sauce and sweet onions and picante food.
Q. What inspires you?
A. New ideas that break windows in my mind-interesting ideas, interesting conversation, not being bored.
Q. What surprised you most about the process of writing a book?
A. How much you have to slow down! When I first started I thought, oh my god, where are my interviews, where are my plane flights to New York, where are my political campaigns? A lot of what was taking place was taking place in the room I was writing and in my mind.
Q. How do you relax?
A. Lifting weights.
Q. If you could live in any other time, past, present, or future, what period would you choose?
A. Maybe the ’60s. It was probably the last time when people truly believed that art and culture could change the world.
Q. What do you miss most about Los Angeles?
A. My women friends here. I feel like women in L.A. are big and bold-or maybe they’re just allowed to be here. California has more female politicians than any other state. It’s a place where women have a lot of say in the public space, and that’s interesting to me.
Q. What book have you re-read the most?
A. There are five or six. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The Lover by Marguerite Duras. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm. But mostly novels.
Q. The beach or the mountains?
A. Mountains. Because they’re cool, and you have a great view, and I don’t really care about sitting on the beach or getting a tan.
Q. Which election is going to be more interesting-the U.S. or Mexico?
A. The U.S.-definitely! A lot of simmering tensions in the U.S. are coming to the forefront on issues of social justice and gender and race. It’s just fascinating to watch.
Q. Have you played any board games recently?
A. I don’t really play board games much. The most interesting group game I played recently was karaoke at a party at an embassy. It caught on like wildfire; it was kind of unbelievable, what a bonding experience it was. It made me want to go out and get a karaoke machine. I ended up singing “I Will Survive” with a diplomat’s Puerto Rican father.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.