Monique Roffey: A Self Portrait
Monique Roffey Revealed
About Monique Roffey
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. Full of good books and nice friendly people
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. Live each day as though it were your first.
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. A cold beer on the beach, watching a cricket match on the sand.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. Snakes
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. Watching the leather back turtles migrate to Matura Beach, Trinidad
- Q. With whom in history do you most identify?
- A. Jean Rhys
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. Sheeeet
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. Not buying property
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. Tap dancing
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. writing novels, learning to drive
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. impatience
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. my skills on the dancefloor
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. a cheetah
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. my hair
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. Queequeg, in Moby Dick
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. Cathy, the whore in East of Eden
- Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
- A. Eric Williams, I'd say - why didn't you knock down the Country Club?
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. grown men riding bikes on the pavement
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. professional ballet dancer
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. patience, wisdom, flexability
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. watermelon
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. Oscillate Wildly, by The Smiths, Lay Lady Lay, Bob Dylan, Andromeda Heights, Prefab Sprout, God Only Knows, the Beach Boys, I Feel the Earth Move, Carol King
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. Cormac McCarthy
Toni Morrison
John Steinbeck
Jean Rhys
Albert Camus - Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. Wide Sargasso Sea
The Grapes of Wrath
The Plague
The Road
Frankenstein - Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. Frankenstein
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. take notes, write every day, do the work
- Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
- A. are you a magical realist?
- Q. How did you come to write Sun Dog?
- A. I had the idea for this book around the solar eclipse of August 1999 - hence my hero's name - August. I was day dreaming in the back of a car and visioned up a tiny man sprouting with roses. And so August was born - a man who would blossom - literally - into himself.
