Meg Rosoff was born in Boston and educated at Harvard and St Martin's College of Art, London. She worked in New York City before moving to London in 1989. Her first novel, How I Live Now, has been translated into 28 languages and is currently being made into a film. Her second novel, Just In Case, won the Carnegie Medal and earned her the title of 'Queen of Weird' from the LA Times. Her fifth novel, There Is No Dog, will be published in September 2011. Meg lives in North London with her artist husband, daughter and two lurchers. She blogs at Meg Rosoff.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > If you don't love it, don't do it.
What are your favourite blogs? > Hyperbole and a Half, and Blood In The Sand.
What are you reading at the moment? > Pilcrow by Adam Mars-Jones; Mal Peet's Life: An Exploded Diagram; Through The Language Glass by Guy Deutscher.
What is the best novel you've ever read? > Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow has to be up there.
What is your favourite poem? > W.B. Yeats, 'Sailing to Byzantium'.
What is your favourite movie? > Decalogue, by Kieslowski. Slightly cheating because it's ten films.
What is your favourite song? > 'Blue Red and Grey', Pete Townsend, from The Who By Numbers.
Who is your favourite composer? > Ravel.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat? > Theism.
What is your favourite piece of political wisdom? > Not sure this counts, but the quote I live by is from Napoleon: 'If you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.'
If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > Outlaw private education.
Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come? > I think it's long past.
What would be your most important piece of advice about life? > Think about death every day. Make your life into something you won't regret at the last minute.
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > Compassion.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > Mediocrity.
What commonly enjoyed activities do you regard as a waste of time? > Cooking. I'd eat beans out of cans, fruit, and toast if I lived alone.
If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you'd do differently? > Almost everything. Only then I wouldn't have got to this point, which I like.
What would you call your autobiography? > Just Starting To Get The Hang of It.
Who would play you in the movie about your life? > Eddie Izzard.
Where would you most like to live (other than where you do)? > A village in the Himalayas.
What would your ideal holiday be? > What it is now - staring out at the sea in Suffolk.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Riding horses.
What is your most treasured possession? > I have an Indian glass painting of a lute player from around 1820. My husband gave it to me for my birthday. It is astonishingly beautiful.
If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to? > Malachy.
What talent would you most like to have? > I would give my left arm to speak 12 languages fluently.
What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job? > Olympic dressage rider.
Who is your favourite comedian or humorist? > James Thurber.
If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for? > I'd wish that whatever miserable process of evolution created a species plagued by overpopulation, starvation, greed, illness and war could be replaced by humans adapted to live quietly, happily and at peace.
How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money? > I would give more money away.
What animal would you most like to be? > A killer whale.
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