Aahhhh how I loved Mike. Truly. Deeply. He was the most sparkling man among us. Life will be different for us now. Earth will be a little duller. Mike Nichols is not alive.

The self is a creation. Mike created an extraordinary star — so bright, so extremely clever — himself. When you were with him, he brought you up to your best smart self, and kept it light with humor. To act for him on camera was to glide on a liquid film of intelligence. Before each scene, Mike gave his actors a brilliant and subversive insight. As you were stirred, he then got you with something really funny. In this state of transcendence, he walked away and said ‘roll camera.’ Now that he has truly ‘walked away’ the act of life is, for me, forever charmed.