The 5-Minute Interview: Zoe Heller, novelist and journalist

Zoe Heller, 41, wrote 'Notes On A Scandal' which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003. A film version is out now on DVD

If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be...

Editing my book. It's called The Believers. It's set in 2002, mainly in New York.

I grew up reading...

Dickens, Austen, George Eliot and Martin Amis.

Now I'm reading...

A lot of a woman called Sybille Bedford. She's just got a very original and elegant prose style. She has basically rewritten, in fiction and non-fiction ways, her autobiography. Her best book is The Legacy. I've found myself reading more women in my old age.

A phrase I use far too often is...

Bloody ridiculous.

The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was...

Getting married. I'd sworn up and down that I wouldn't because I didn't believe in it. The Government makes it quite difficult to have children and live with somebody and not be married so it helps in making wills and being able to visit your companion in hospital. I feel very romantic about the man I live with.

A common misperception of me is...

That I don't suffer fools gladly. I'm actually very kind and patient with fools.

I'm not a politician but...

I'd get out of Iraq.

I'm good at...

Working hard.

I'm very bad at...

Cooking; keeping my temper.

The ideal night out is...

Going for dinner with friends and getting home early enough to read for an hour before going to bed.

In moments of weakness I...

Take very long naps.

You know me as a novelist, but I might have been a...

Singer. I sing around the house.

The best age to be is...

Thirty, because you haven't begun to lose your mind and your body is still relatively intact, but you're slightly less neurotic and self- conscious than you were in your twenties.

In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:

This is a conspiracy to make you sound as pompous as possible. The golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Elisa Bray