Deborah Levy, novelist, playwright & poet: "Zoe Pilger might be the heiress to Angela Carter"

Levy says: 'Some of the characters in my fictions have a little bit of me in them. I guess that's a sort of literary DNA?'

Where are you now and what can you see?

In a North London pub with a friend. It's raining and our coats are spread over the radiator. I can see the young woman working at the bar has had a new nose piercing. Very nice.

What are you currently reading?

Zoe Pilger's Eat My Heart Out. It's made me think that Pilger might be the heiress to Angela Carter.

Choose a favourite author and say why you admire her/him

J.G. Ballard – for the ideas that crowd every page –he reckons the personality type who will best survive the corporate 21st century is the psychopath. I see the truth of this every day and have no idea why I should be upset when leading supermarkets suffer "a shock fall in profits".

Describe the room where you usually write

I hire a modest garden shed built under an apple tree. On the wall hangs a microscopic photograph of Charlotte Bronte's quill pen – an artwork by genius Cornelia Parker. Last winter when I was re-writing An Amorous Discourse in The Suburbs of Hell, I was snowed in twice and had to dig myself out.

Which fictional character most resembles you?

Some of the characters in my fictions have a little bit of me in them. I guess that's a sort of literary DNA?

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

Sigmund Freud. Apparently he disliked chicken and said to his family, "Let the chickens live and lay eggs." That's a marvellous thought and could change the course of 21st century industrial farming.

Deborah Levy's book-length poem, 'An Amorous Discourse in The Suburbs of Hell', is published by And Other Stories (£7.99)