A literary achievement of the highest order.

I grew up in Seattle, but I always knew I wanted to leave.

I think of myself as a really happy person.

To persevere is always a reflection of the state of one's inner life, one's philosophy and one's perspective

I became paralyzed as an artist with writer's block.

To deny that there was this dark side of life would be like pretending that the cold of winter was somehow only a temporary illusion, a way station on the way to the higher "reality" of long, warm, pleasant summers. But summer, it turned out, was no more real than the snow that melted in wintertime.

I was born in Washington State and have lived here for 42 plus years.