I always remember my childhood as traumatic, for various reasons; I always felt alienated, outside.

I think genius can have a lot to do with nerve. And permission.

The memoir by women, read by female readers, is considered a market form, not "great literature."

The biographies of the great men see their excesses as signs of their greatness. But Jean Rhys, in her biography, is read as borderline; Anaïs Nin is borderline; Djuna is borderline; etc. etc. Borderline personality disorder being an overwhelmingly gendered diagnosis. I write in Heroines: “The charges of borderline personality disorder are the same charges against girls writing literature, I realize - too emotional, too impulsive, no boundaries."

I am worthy of being read. I mean, one has to be convinced of one's genius.

For years I lived rather medicated and muted - I did not possess language to describe my vague feelings of unhappiness, to politicize it, to attempt to transcend it.

People are depressed for many reasons, one of which I think is how we have been taught to react to trauma, to stress.