MJ Rose.com

I was born and bred in New York City. What a place to grow up!

Santa and me - age 2

I was one of those shy kids who preferred adults and books to games except for a game my Mom and I played: we spent hours at museums making up stories about the people inside the paintings.

My parents were very understanding about my inability to fit in well with other children and rather than force me to be like every body else they encouraged my creativity and curiosity.

And that, as Robert Frost said, has made all the difference."

By eight I'd read everything by Louisa May Alcott but my favorite book was The Secret Garden. I think I read it a dozen times in one year.

By the time I was sixteen, I was writing a lot of bad poetry and discovered the writings of Ayn Rand - which I devoured because her iconoclastic view of the world and the loneliness of her heros appealed to me.

Winka and me - very recently

As some sort of rebellion against my entire family, all of whom were sure I was going to grow up and be a writer - I studied art at college. But after graduating with a BFA, I went to work as a copywriter for a NYC ad agency.

At 30 I became a creative director of another ad agency. My strange claim to fame in advertising is that I have a commercial for the NYPD in the Museum of Modern Art's Broadcast Department.

Now, I'm a journalist for wired.com and an author and live in Connecticut with my partner, who is also my favorite musican. He's just gotten rave reviews for his of a new movie called Trifling With Fate. Curently, he's putting together a CD of his original work as a singer/songwriter

Proust Questionnaire

What does Paradise represent for you?
Floating on the water, music in the air, a certain man waiting for me on the beach.

What does Hell represent?
Physical pain or anxiety that does not abate.

What are the depths of misfortune for you?
Losing someone I love.

What is the quality you prefer in a man?
Intelligence.

The quality you prefer in a woman?
Intelligence

Your favorite virtue?
Personal growth.

What do you appreciate most in your friends?
Understanding.

For what faults are you the most indulgent?
Spending too much time dreaming.

What is the main feature of your character?
Determination

Your main defect?
Impatience.

Your main quality?
Passion.

Your drug?
Passion and nicotine. I can accept the former and am working on getting rid of the latter.

Your dream of happiness?
A long life writing well and loving well and dying quickly when I choose the time has come.

What would be your greatest misfortune?
To lose my curiosity.

Where would you like to live?
In Paris in the winter and Capri in the summer.

Who would you have liked to be?
Picasso.

What is the gift of nature you would like to have?
I've always wanted to be able to paint. But I'm abysmal at it.

Do you have hobbies ?
Whatever free time I have, I love to indulge in books written by other people. And to travel. When I'm home, in the spring and summer, I like to garden. And I like to go to museums. And to listen to music. But I don't really consider all these hobbies as much as feeding my soul.

Your favorite first names?
Names that begin with J or G

Which is your favorite color?
Green

What is the flower you like best?
Delphiniums, foxglove and old roses all planted too close together.

Your favorite bird?
Peacock

Your favorite authors in prose?
A.S. Byatt
Alice Hoffman
Irwin Yalom
Patrick Susskind
Daphne DuMaurier
John O'Hara
Victor Hugo

Your favorite playwrights?
Oscar Wilde
Noel Coward

Your favorite poets?
Jane Hirshfield
Denise Levertov
e.e. cummings
Keats
Pablo Neruda

Your favorite composer?
Beethoven, Chopin, Doug Scofield

Your favorite painter?
Monet's Water Lilies and the Pre-Raphaelites

Your favorite film maker?
Hitchcock

Your favorite film or one that you would recommend?
My current favorite is Milk and Money by Michael Bergman

Your favorite actor / actress?
Cary Grant / Audrey Hepburn

Your heroes / heroines in real life?
Doug Scofield and my mother - for the courage they showed in dealing with their illnesses.

Your heroes / heroines in fiction?
Howard Roark in The Fountainhead/ Lady Chatterley in Lady Chatterley's Lover

Your heroes / heroines in history?
Michaelangelo /Ayn Rand

The historical characters you hate the most?
Hitler

What do you hate above all?
Stupidity

The reform you appraise the most?
Giving women the vote.

The military event you admire the most?
The Nuremberg Trials

What is your current state of mind?
Optimistic

Do you have any regret?
Yes, for all the days I have wasted worrying.

How would you like to die?
In my sleep.

What is you motto?
"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. "
Franz Kafka