Actually, social drug-taking went kind of low-key for a couple of years. Probably because of AIDS, people got very conscious of their health. But it seems to be making a comeback. Just the other night I was at a party where people kept disappearing into the bathroom every few minutes. I'm glad I did all that in my 20s and that I'm done with it. And that I wrote about it in Postcards from the Edge.

If some gang were threatening your family, you'd go looking for someone butch to help, right? Any maybe if your mother were sick or something, you'd find someone a bit more fey.

Of course I miss [drugs]. And anyone who tells you they don't is lying.

Leia follows me like a vague smell.

Mistakes are a drag, because you get in the area of regret and self-pity.

My mother's career was over at 40 but she was still trying to be everyone's buddy, always smiling for the cameras.

Now I say I'm a diarist with an explanation I'll get back to you on. Someday I may try and write in memoir form.