Thomas Keneally

From a Q & A with Thomas Keneally, author of many books including Schindler's Ark (1982), which won the Booker Prize and is the basis of the film Schindler's List, at the Guardian:

When were you happiest?

I'd like to say when I was 20 or even 40, but I'm afraid it has been in extended phases since I turned 60. Like all the young, I had too many reasons to be unhappy earlier.

Which living person do you most admire?

It's a test to admire the living. Maybe Seamus Heaney.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Impetuosity.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Intolerance of people. I no doubt dislike it because I have some of it in me, but what I'm talking about is ethnic myth-making about a group, glib but deadly regurgitations of hysteric myths. Really, really hate it.

What makes you depressed?[read on]

Also see Keneally's 1999 interview with Linda L. Richards at January Magazine.

--Marshal Zeringue