I am in a mixed race marriage myself, and I have a mixed race son....The racial perception interest is probably always going to be there to some extent.

I would never tell myself, you have to write 20 pages today or something. But I do try to show up. Read what I wrote, fix things.

I'd like to think of my self as not melancholic at all, I think I'm a pretty cheerful person, really.

You don't feel like smiling? Then what? Force yourself to smile. Act as if you were already happy, and that will tend to make you happy.

I think this is something that is naturally built in in people, a need for attention and a need to be special and we are always trying to find a balance.

If you told people you were moving to Ohio, they wouldn't congratulate you. They'd say "OH WHY would you move there?" as if that was something that happened to you and you had to deal with.

If a news camera shows up, people will line up, they want to be seen. But at the same time they want both to be chosen and not singled out. I think that is an endless struggle within most.