WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM?

Dr Strangelove, although I have never seen it at a cinema. Best childhood experiences at our local Hoyts were The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Waltz.

AND YOUR FAVOURITE BOOK?

The Plague.

NAME THE THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD MOST LIKE TO DINE WITH.

Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and Bob Dylan.

WHICH WORD DO YOU MOST DISLIKE, AND WHICH WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE BACK IN PUBLIC USAGE?

'Reform.' I know, I know, I made a career banging on about it. But it's time to get over the 1980s. 'Republic.'

WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR?

Albert Camus got to me when I was young.

AND YOUR FAVOURITE LITERARY HERO AND HEROINE?

Odysseus and Hecate.

NAME AN EARLY LITERARY IDOL OR INFLUENCE WHOM YOU NO LONGER ADMIRE – OR VICE VERSA.

A deadheat between Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer.

WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IMPEDES YOUR WRITING?

I've been working from home since I retired from the media, so, in a word, everything.

HOW DO YOU REGARD PUBLISHERS?

I like them better than newspaper editors. Not that there is anything wrong with newspaper editors.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE STATE OF CRITICISM?

A disclaimer: I tried it once, and it wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy telling an author I liked that I didn't agree with him. But critics are an essential element of a literary culture. From my narrow perspective in non-fiction,I prefer essays that really add to or rebut the author's argument. I am less interested in reviews that begin with the premise: 'I could write a better book on this subject.'

IF YOU HAD YOUR TIME OVER AGAIN, WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BE A WRITER?

Definitely. But I'd start writing a decade earlier.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WRITERS' FESTIVALS?

Love them. They bring together the two best groups of people in the world: readers and writers.

ARE ARTISTS VALUED IN OUR SOCIETY?

No, but here's the real question: would the writing improve if we were paid as much as merchant bankers, celebrity chefs, or sportsmen?

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW?

I am about to start writing the outline for a television documentary based on Australia's Second Chance.