I'm actually much more shy and self-conscious than people's perception of me.

A lot of readers have actually helped me, been really sweet to me... So maybe my cry for help has sometimes been answered.

I need to stay in the present and use that new-age mantra: 'I'm okay right now.' But I worry about all the things I'm failing at every moment.

From age 23 to 44 - I'm 45 now - I was always in need of money, and I was especially in need of it from 23 to about 34, and my great aunt would always give me money, a hundred bucks, every two months or so, and a lot of times that hundred bucks made a huge difference - I could eat or pay a small bill. It kept me going. She gave me money. It was very loving.

As a child, I wanted to be an athlete, a professional tennis player or something like that.

It's hard for me to think of writing a novel, because it takes so long.

I promote my own self-hatred.