Hounded by critics for A Life’s Work (2001), her frank portrait of motherhood, Rachel Cusk has also explored the trials of family life in her fiction. In the Fold (2005) is a tale of mismatched couples and problem children; in Arlington Park, shortlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize, five mothers struggle for stability in suburbia. Cusk, 42, was born in Canada and spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles before going to boarding school in the UK. She studied English at Oxford University. She is married with two daughters and one step-daughter and lives on the south-east coast of England.

Who is your perfect reader?

Someone who isn’t in a hurry, who is free of prejudices, and who recognises the value of honesty.

What is the last thing you read that made you laugh out loud?

Gogol’s Dead Souls and Wells Tower’s Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, although they were different kinds of laughter.

Where do you write best?

In places belonging to other people.

What do you consume while you are writing?

Just black coffee and cigarettes.

Who would you choose to play you in a film about your life?

Donald Sutherland. He’s very awkward with a glint in his eye.

Who are your literary influences?

DH Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf.

When do you feel most free?

Writing offers my most intense experiences of freedom.

What stops you sleeping?

Making things up. I tend to write in my head, which suggests I don’t concentrate sufficiently during the day.

How do you relax?

I have no idea how to relax. This is an awful affliction.

If you could own any painting, what would it be?

Lovis Corinth’s “Self-portrait with Skeleton”. Or his beautiful painting of his six-year-old daughter.

What is the first novel you read?

I think it was Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

What book do you most wish you’d written?

Jane Smiley’s The Age of Grief. You can only wish you’d written a book it would have been possible for you to write.

What are you most proud of writing?

I’m not proud of anything I’ve written. I think being proud of yourself is the first sign of losing your wits.

How would you earn your living if you had to give up writing?

I’ve always hankered for some demonic, power-crazed executive-type job. But I’d probably do something menial that would let me think my own thoughts.

Rachel Cusk’s latest novel is ‘The Bradshaw Variations’ (Faber)