All artists as a type seem to suffer a great deal, but then so do miners.

I'm hoping to be astonished tomorrow by I don't know what.

The wife picked out ceramic tile for floor covering, not realizing that cost was determined by square foot, not square yard like carpet. Thinking the price was plenty reasonable, she had an extra room of tile ordered for installation. When the bill arrived, it was staggering. She and her husband began a fight that continued all through the construction job. They ended up divorced, but not until she had broken every window.

So when I made some money, I didn't have any idea how one handled such a situation because no one in our family ever had any money.

I was on the verge of jumping into one of those holes in life out of which we emerge a bit tattered and bloody, though we remain sure nonetheless that we had to make the jump.

The old fun thing is when somebody typed up the first chapter of War and Peace. And then made a precis of the rest of it and sent it out and only one publisher recognized it.

I'm actually forced to write about Michigan because as a native of that state it's the place I know best.