Confirm or Deny

Maureen Dowd: You’ve been on the same dose of Klonopin for the last 25 years straight.

Sheila Nevins: Yes, 1 milligram. I never changed it. I probably wouldn’t be here today if not for Klonopin. I like Ambien when I’m having trouble sleeping. Oh, melatonin, I take it all the time. I think it’s because I’m in the dark so much in the editing room. It messes me up on light and dark.

Dowd: You can’t unwind.

Nevins: Absolutely. I can’t.

Dowd: You prefer T.J. Maxx to Bergdorf’s.

Nevins: Way, way more. I can have anything I want at T.J. Maxx. I can have one thing in every aisle, and I love it. And I love the shopping bags. They have great shopping bags. Here, look at this bag and this passport folder. They’re T.J. Maxx.

Dowd: You would be happy to wear the same thing every day.

Nevins: Confirm.

Dowd: Curiosity is the fountain of youth.

Nevins: Yes, I believe it. And a good plastic surgeon.

Dowd: As a child, you picketed in Union Square against executing the Rosenbergs.

Nevins: Yes. My mother went to school with Ethel Rosenberg. She made me go to Union Square the day they were executed.

Dowd: One of your very first jobs was licking stamps.

Nevins: I worked in the Old Post Office building, which is now the Trump Hotel in Washington, and there was a guy there who wanted one stamp a day, and my job was to put the stamp on the envelope. Now you can peel them off. Not then.

Dowd: Ken Burns is overrated.

Nevins: I would never say that out loud.

Dowd: “The Blair Witch Project” is your favorite documentary.

Nevins: No.

Dowd: HBO ran the “The Jinx” and “Going Clear.” Tom Cruise scares you more than Robert Durst.

Nevins: No.

Dowd: You never want to see another 9/11 conspiracy documentary.

Nevins: Never. Or a JFK conspiracy documentary. I think it’s harmful. I mean, we think that one person can’t do evil. One person can do a lot of evil. One bullet, one person.

Dowd: Trump is the greatest story of all time.

Nevins: Well, it is Shakespearean. Lear maybe. But I think he’s Shakespearean because he can cause tragedy. And he’s capable of tragedy.

Dowd: You like sad better than happy.

Nevins: Oh, yes. I like empathy better than giggles. Sad brings empathy, and empathy is the only human thing we have, right?

Dowd: You see at least 30 shows a year on Broadway.

Nevins: Oh my God, yes. I’m a Tony judge. I see probably 60 shows.

Dowd: You hate vacations.

Nevins: Hate. Because I work the whole time and everybody else is getting relaxed, and I come back and I’m usually exhausted. Good work is a vacation. Making something happen that you really daydreamed into happening. What am I going to do? Go to Florida and sit with a bunch of old people in a rocking chair and complain about what hurts?

Dowd: You’re never satisfied.

Nevins: Absolutely never satisfied.