I've always been drawn to solitude, felt a kind of luxurious relief in its self-generated pace and rhythms.

Solitude is a breeding ground for idiosyncrasy, and I relish that about it, the way it liberates whim.

I'm still prone to periods of isolation, still more fearful of the world out there and more averse to pleasure and risk than I'd like to be; I still direct more energy toward controlling and minimizing appetites than toward indulging them.

Mastery over the body - its impulses, its needs, its size - is paramount; to lose control is to risk beauty, and to risk beauty is to risk desirability, and to risk desirability is to risk entitlement to sexuality and love and self-esteem.

I've always been drawn to solitude, felt a kind of luxurious relief in its self-generated pace and rhythms.

All dogs can be guide dogs of a sort, leading us to places we didn't even know we needed or wanted to go.

You'll reach into your wallet to brandish a photograph of a new puppy, and a friend will say, 'Oh, no - not pictures.