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Remember to check out the Questions about Morris' books and the Questions about writing, as well – and there's heaps more info About Morris and in the Scrapbook. 
Newest questions are at the top of the list. Click on a question to see the answer: |
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• When is your next book coming out?  When is your next book coming out?  Pizza Cake is out in Australia and New Zealand, but won’t be published in the UK until mid-2012. [ top ] Where do you write your books? In my office at home. Though it's a bit more complicated than that because I've got a place in Melbourne and a place in Sydney. I've got an office in each with identical computers and I write each book partly at one place and partly at the other. I think the Melbourne computer is a bit better at endings. [ top ] How many awards have you won? I've never counted. I like winning awards, but I think counting them can be dangerous. Awards are a bit like pimples – you're almost certain to get some sooner or later and you have to leave them alone or they go septic. [ top ] Do people ever recognise you when you're in public? Only when I'm wearing a name-tag. I have a policy of making sure that all photos of me on my book covers are a few years old. This is partly because I'm vain and partly because it means that I've always got less hair than any of the photos. Which means people don't recognise me when I'm out and I'm free to go into bookshops and put my books in front of Harry Potter books anonymously. [ top ] Will you ever change your career? I hope not. If I had to, though, I'd like to do something involving travel, wine or stationery. [ top ] What other skills do you have besides writing books? I'm not bad at cooking, tidying up a house and playing table tennis. I'm very good at making lists and finding bargains at the shops. [ top ] Do you get nervous speaking to large groups of people? I used to. It's a shock when you first realise that being an author isn't sitting in a room on your own all day – it's also going out and showing off in public. I've gradually got used to it and now I mostly enjoy it. I prefer having the audience ask me questions so I can give spontaneous honest answers rather than writing a talk beforehand and trying and learn it. [ top ] Have you won any awards in your career? Quite a few, but I try not to let my head swell too much. Most awards are given by small groups of people who are just expressing their very personal preferences. The awards I really like getting are the ones voted for by actual readers, like the Yabba Award in Victoria and the Koala Award in NSW and all the other state awards voted for by young people. Winning the Dymocks Children's Choice Award did mean that I had to put elastic in a number of my hats. [ top ] How long have you been writing books for? I wrote my first, The Other Facts Of Life, in 1985. [ top ] Do you ever get bored? Not really. That's one of the good things about having a very active imagination. But I do get scared sometimes that I won't find a character's story. Or be able to tell it properly. And I get frustrated when I can't make a story fit the shape I want it to. And now and then sitting at my desk I crave the company of people who aren't inside my head. [ top ] How do you pronounce your last name? Gleit rhymes with light, white and bite, which makes me sound more like a dairy product than I really am. [ top ] How old are you? I was born in 1953 which makes me... boy, maths was my worst subject at school... um... 67? [ top ] Do you have a guinea pig? No. I had a hamster when I was nine, but it died. People have since told me that guinea pigs are tougher and come with a longer warranty. [ top ] What star sign are you? Capricorn. My birthday is the 9th of January (hint). [ top ] Where did you go to uni? The University Of Canberra, except in those days it was called Canberra College Of Advanced Education. [ top ] What is your hair colour? Eye colour? Favourite colour? Brown and grey. Brown. Black. [ top ] What inspires you as a writer? Lots of things. The knowledge that somebody I've never met somewhere I've never been can read one of my stories and laugh and cry at the same things as me. The experience of being inside a character who can be braver, funnier, wiser, sillier, naughtier, more determined, more creative and more loving than I'm usually able to be. The hope that after I'm dead people will still enjoy my stories. Stationery. [ top ] Are you married and do you have any children? I used to be married to Christine. For the last ten years my partner has been Mary-Anne. I've got two children, Sophie and Ben, and two step-children, Tom and Jamie. You might recognize some of those names from the dedications in my books. [ top ] Where are you living now? In a part of Melbourne called Carnegie. I also spend a lot of time in Sydney. I live mostly in my imagination, though. [ top ] Do you do anything else apart from writing? I've got a few hobbies and pastimes (see Morris A-Z in the Scrapbook section of this site). If you mean do I do other work - not really. All my work is related to writing. I actually only spend about half my work time writing. The rest of it I spend thinking, daydreaming, planning, talking to my publisher, doing publicity, talking at conferences, sharpening pencils and answering questions on my website. [ top ] What do you think the future holds for you? Lots more books and heaps more wrinkles. [ top ] What are the details of your family? I am named after my father's father, Morris Gleitzman. He was Jewish and came from Krakow in Poland. My other three grandparents were English and are all dead too. My parents live in Leura in NSW. My brother Nick and sister Melanie both live near Sydney, Nick to the north and Melanie to the west. [ top ] What sort of influences did your parents have on your life? My mother taught me to be neat and my father taught me how to be funny. They both taught me to care about people and stories. [ top ] Do you like going to schools? I like it more as an author than I did as a student. These days could happily spend all my time going to schools, but if I did I wouldn't write any books and then the teachers would wonder who this bloke was visiting the school who hadn't written any books and ... well, you get the picture. Sometimes schools write to my publishers asking me to visit and sometimes I'm able to. And sometimes, sadly, not. [ top ] What school did you go to? East Wickham Primary in south-east London, and Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar, also in south-east London. [ top ] How old were you when you finished school? I left high school when I was 16. Then we emigrated to Australia and after working for a bit I went to East Sydney Tech and did years 11 and 12 in eight hectic months. Then I went to Canberra College Of Advanced Education. [ top ] Can you tell me one of your funniest jokes? I'm afraid I've never been able to remember jokes. People tell me hilarious ones and two minutes later I've forgotten them. Some people think this makes me very boring. Which is perhaps why I decided to spend my life in a room on my own writing books. (Only joking). [ top ] How would you describe yourself? (Use language that'll get high marks in a school project, please.) A middle-aged bloke with not much hair and quite a lot of tummy who tries to explore every aspect of being human using only a notebook, a computer, his imagination and lots of nouns, verbs, prepositions, pronouns and articles. Plus a few adjectives and adverbs. And the odd metaphor, simile and subordinate clause. [ top ] What are your favourite sports? Soccer and table tennis. These days I mostly watch. [ top ] Do you support any footy teams? Soccer: Charlton Athletic, who've been relegated from the English Premier League (Sob). AFL: I used to support Fitzroy (Sob). [ top ] Would you have enjoyed your books when you were young? I enjoyed reading everything when I was young, even knitting patterns. [ top ] What sort of books and which other authors do you most enjoy reading, now and as a child? As a kid Richmal Crompton's Willam books were my favourite and still are. I don't read much fiction these days because I can't read other people's stories while I'm writing my own. The voices and rhythms get all mixed up. So I read mostly non-fiction. I love biographies. [ top ] What is your favourite memory from school? I scored some pretty good goals with the tennis ball. I also used to like Fridays. We always had fish and chips for school lunch. [ top ] What do you do to relax? Read. Listen to music. Walk. Tidy things up around the house.
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