I think that there's some confusion in my own mind about what I believe.

I guess I consider myself at times to have intuition.

Ordinarily, of course, I thought it best to remain inconspicuous, but the gesture had a certain irresistable theatricaility, and an inevitablility. Sometimes you can feel the pull of what other people want from you, and you sacrifice yourself, you risk seeming odd or sunsavory, to keep them entertained.

Foolish names and foolish faces often appear in public places.

Personally, I have never wished I were a male novelist.

Well, I think in my first two novels, both the characters are pretty neurotic, which I would say that I am.

I think it's significantly easier to be a female writer today than in the early 1800's. That said, it's hard to imagine almost anyone who knows anything about publishing disagreeing with the statement that women writers today are often taken much less seriously than men writers. But it's hard to quantify, and even define, what being taken seriously means.