Tiffany Murray

Tiffany Murray, author of Diamond Star Halo on why listening to The Smiths is no aid to conversation among others things.

1. When were you happiest?

The first year I moved to New York City. 1993.

2. What is your principal defect?

A tendancy to live in the past.

3. What makes you depressed?

Small mindedness. Darkness at 3.30pm.

4. What do you most dislike about your appearance?

The fact I can’t make it change for the better.

5. What is your favourite word?

Lurcher

6. What is your most unappealing habit?

I let others decide that.

7. What is your favourite smell?

Roses, anything my mother cooks, and the inside of my dogs’ ears.

8. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

At the moment, Charlaine Harris.

9. Who are your favourite writers?

For now, Sherman Alexie, Jean Rhys, Denton Welch, John Irving, Anne Tyler, Lorrie Moore, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, E.M Forster.

10. What is the worst job you've done?

Walking a Boxer pup in New York. I was a dogwalker for seven years and loved it, but this pup had colitis. I walked him twice a day. Poor little pet-shop bought mite. I invested in rubber gloves.

11. When did you last cry, and why?

The other morning. Listening to my father sing. He recorded a few songs I wrote for Diamond Star Halo before he died. Is that just too sad?

12. What do you most value in you friends?

Their ability to make me laugh.

13. What gift would you most like to possess?

Patience. The ability to play the cello. How lazy is that. I could LEARN.

14. What was your most embarrassing moment?

Riding withAudrey Hepburn in a lift. I was 17. She asked me my name, I said ‘Tiffany’ and then I spent the remainder of the ride saying ‘no, really, it is,’ then apologising. I think she thought I made it up. She really did.

15. What is your most treasured possession?

My memory.

16. What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?

‘You have a heart of stone.’ It was 1984 and we were both listening to The Smiths too much.

17. If you could edit your past, what would you change?

Thinking I was old before my time.

18. If you could go back in time, where would you go?

1920s New York.

19. What is your greatest fear?

Sharks, and dying. Imagine both together. I’d black out. Thankfully.

20. What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

The usual: don’t take anything for granted, particulary love.