What is your favourite music?

Bach’s cello suites. I find that Bach filters my brain; it’s the only music I can listen to while writing.

And your favourite book?

I no longer have a favourite book – there are so many wonders in the world, I can’t choose – but when I did, it was Lolita.

Who is your favourite author?

I’ll limit it to living writers of novels; my favourite of those is Marilynne Robinson.

And your favourite literary hero and heroine?

My hero is Jakob von Gunten, star of, well, Jakob von Gunten, Robert Walser’s singular novel about a school for servants. I love the quality of Jakob’s subversion in that lovely, strange, tiny place. And my heroine: Theodora Goodman, the eponymous aunt of Patrick White’s The Aunt’s Story, who is glorious and difficult and bewildering and kind.

Name an early literary idol or influence whom you no longer admire – or vice versa.

I’d find this much easier to answer about visual artists or musicians; every literary idol has been so important to me that even if I’ve moved out of their sphere of influence I feel a sort of sticky, tender gratitude for the time we spent together. I suppose Lolita might be an example, although I still admire it immensely. I read it differently now than I did at eighteen.

How old were you when your first book appeared?

Thirty-five.

What, if anything, impedes your writing?

Obligations, interruptions, persons from Porlock, procrastination, self-doubt, and addictive television shows.

How do you regard publishers?

One book in, I feel pretty delighted with them; or at least, with the humans I interact with, who have looked after my book with sensible, gracious skill.

What do you think of the state of criticism?

We’ve lost, or are losing, some of the traditional places to find excellent long-form criticism, but the Internet has opened up a world of other voices, though I still look forward to the arrival, by post, of my physical copy of the London Review of Books. I really admire what the Sydney Review of Books is doing, entirely online.

If you had your time over again, would you choose to be a writer?

I would.

What do you think of writers’ festivals?

I dread them and, upon arrival, have a great time. I usually feel the same way about parties.

Do you feel artists are valued in our society?

Like bees, I think people would miss us if we weren’t around.

What are you working on now?

I’m finishing a collection of short stories and getting started on a second novel.