MK: I never was interested in history, because I just wasn’t, but I was sent on an assignment for The New York Times and we decided I would do something I had no interest in. I would be naive.
What’s something that has shocked you to discover in researching Lincolnor some of your other subjects?
MK: How smart they were. How sophisticated. How they read Lucretius and Spinoza (Jefferson). How much Lincoln loved Shakespeare. And Mozart.They were thinkers of a very high order.

If you could visit any other time period and place in history, whichwould it be and what would you do there?
MK: I would like to visit Hadrian in ancient Rome. I think we would walk around and look at the Pantheon together and have a tea or coffee somewhere. Visit Versailles and hang around the court for a few weeks.

What’s the last work of art you fell in love with?
MK: I am reading Remembrance of Things Past — really reading — and I am besotted and madly in love with M. Proust. I don’t know what is going on half the time, but the way he goes on is like a blood transfusion. I am filled with the music of the words.
What are you working on right now?
MK: Right now, I am getting ready to go to my friend’s house and play Scrabble. Tomorrow, I will sketch ideas for a New Yorker cover. And then I will sew a felt bag for my iPad.