'The day I quit my job was the best day of my life.'

‘Quit your job! The day I quit my job was the best day of my life. I wanted to be a writer. It took me four months, and resulted in How I Live Now. I found my fame and fortune with it, and I thought, "Publishing people are so friendly!" But they aren't, not always! Despite that book being a big success, my second, Just in Case, was turned down flat by both my UK and US editors. My agent, who is smart, told me not to listen to them, just to keep on working on it. I did. After it came out, it won the Carnegie (the UK's most prestigious children's book award).

I never set out to write books for children: they just got marketed that way. My subject has always how to become a person. That starts early in life, and doesn't end when you are 19. It just goes on and on.'

Meg Rosoff, author of Jonathan Unleashed, her first book for adults, in the Independent on Sunday.