ABT’s Proust Questionnaire
Nov 24,2011
Up close and personal: Award-winning writer Linden MacIntyre completes ABT's questionnaire.
Linden MacIntyre is a co-host on CBC’s the fifth estate and the winner of nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism.
His novel, The Bishop’s Man, was a number one national bestseller, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year and has been published in the U.K. and the U.S. and has been translated into eight languages.
ABT: What do you consider your best quality?
LM: Punctuality, when I have time.
ABT: A quality you desire in a partner:
LM: Punctuality and passion.
ABT: What do you appreciate most about your friends?
LM: Passion and discretion.
ABT: Your worst quality:
LM: Procrastination.
ABT: Your favourite occupation:
LM: Cryptic crossword puzzles.
ABT: What is your idea of happiness?
LM: Solitude, a still mind and an easy Guardian cryptic.
ABT: Your idea of misery:
LM: Crowds of strangers, the Friday New York Times crossword.
ABT: If you could be someone else for a day who would it be?
LM: Myself as I should be.
ABT: Where you would most like to live?
LM: Nearest those I love.
ABT: Favourite colour:
LM: The sea and all its hue.
ABT: Favourite Animal:
LM: A wise dog.
ABT: Your favourite poet(s):
LM: Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Anna Akhmatova.
ABT: Favourite author(s):
LM: John McGahern, William Trevor, John le Carre.
ABT: Your favourite fictional heroes:
LM: Leopold Bloom, George Smile.
ABT: Your real life heroes:
LM: True public servants in all walks of life.
ABT: Your favourite food & drink:
LM: Pasta and Scotch.
ABT: What is your greatest fear?
LM: Loss.
ABT: A natural talent you’d like to possess:
LM: Music.
ABT: How you want to die:
LM: Done.
ABT: Your present state of mind:
LM: Pessimistic, restless.
ABT: Favourite or personal motto:
LM: Gaelic: Obair la toiseachadh—It’s a day’s work to get started.
