An Interview With Writer and Editor Diane Gottlieb by Melissa Ostrom
In her stunning essay “On Excellence,” Cynthia Ozick pays tribute to her mother, a woman with a big heart and many gifts and passions. Ozick recalls how her mother used to make her laugh, for she was “so varied, like a tree on which lemons, pomegranates, and prickly pears absurdly all hang together,” and she suggests this singularity wonderful parent epitomixed excellence,’insofar as excellence means ripe generosity.”