Five years ago, I met Nora Ephron, the journalist-cum-film-maker (then 70) at a dinner party in New York. I was starstruck. That was partly because Ephron created some of my favourite films, such as When Harry Met Sally (1989). But in her life (she died in 2012) she was also that rare creature: a potent female role model for young wannabe journalists. She started working in the mail room of Newsweek in the 1960s, when women were rare in media, and then fearlessly ascended the career ladder to become one of the most trenchant, respected essayists of her time. Ephron’s hallmark was collecting threads from her own life — and from the lives of others — to weave provocative literary tapestries and films.
5年前，我在纽约的一个晚宴派对上遇到了记者和电影制作人诺拉•埃夫龙(Nora Ephron)，当时她70岁，是我崇拜的偶像。部分原因是埃夫龙创作了一些我最喜欢的电影，例如《当哈里遇见萨利》(When Harry Met Sally)（1989年）。但在她的人生中（她在2012年去世），她也是一种稀有动物：她是梦想成为记者的年轻人的伟大女性楷模。上世纪60年代，她开始在《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)的邮件收发室工作，当时从事媒体行业的女性很少，接着她无畏地攀登职业阶梯，成为她那个时代笔锋最为犀利、最受尊敬的散文家之一。埃夫龙的特点是从她自己以及其他人的生活中收集素材，然后编织成吸引人的文学作品和电影。