Red carpet conversations can be pretty light. At the Met Ball, Greta Gerwig, star of the film “Frances Ha,” directed by Noah Baumbach, with Mickey Sumner and Adam Driver, was more like a ray of light.

I asked about her sources of creativity.

“Where do I get my new ideas? From old books people don’t read anymore: 16th century philosophers, that’s the new sh**,” Gerwig said.

Ok, like who? I asked.

“People like St. Anselm of Cantebury, St. Augustine, the stuff nobody’s looking at.”

And what did they have to say?

“They’re talking to me about whether or not angels have bodies and stuff, just weird philosphical things that people used to worry about.”

And how does that inspire you?

“It’s inspirational, in modern life, because it’s amazing to me that someone spent that much intellectual energy worrying about whether or not angels have bodies but at the same time I appreciate the logic that went into it. So it makes me feel if you pick any corner of the universe even if it’s nonexistent you can find  something interesting about it.”

Which left me thinking, do red carpets really exist? 

Photo by Getty Images. Isn’t it perfect for the quote?

Read my Met Ball story here.