All you have is the writer's imagination. You have a very limited time to take this imaginary person and bring the details of their life, as you perceive them, to life. You attempt to do to that as fully and as vibrantly as you can. It's depressing to read how much you've failed. And it's not even particularly instructive or necessary to read how you succeeded because in the end don't you have to judge that?

I don't have a saviour or a royal family.

I'm more comfortable with whatever's wrong with me than my father was whenever he felt he failed or didn't measure up to the standard he set.

It's not a gift of mine, but one given to me, to be able to criticise myself and not be crushed, by myself or by others.

For a while I wanted to be a professional baseball pitcher, and then I wanted to be a musician and then sometimes I think I'd like to start a store for gift-wrapping Christmas presents... But I feel I could do most things I set my mind to, except mechanical things, I'm not very good at that.

Imagine how asleep or utterly unperceptive and clueless you would have to be not to see yourself as absurd for the most part.

There are many, many benefits to being known for whatever it is you do. To deny that would be sort of asinine and vulgar.