The drugstore is a wonderful place to see all manner of ailments.

The strangest thing about strange things is that they're only strange when you hear about them or think about them later, but never when you're living them.

I'm not alone in having obese people in my circle and in my family. I have loved morbidly obese people, and I don't approach obesity with revulsion or judgment but with empathy and compassion.

I have had, like most women, a lifelong preoccupation with my weight. My first published short story was a love story between an elderly man and a very young morbidity obese woman.

I was in the emergency room twice with heart palpitations and panic attacks. As one of my actor friends pointed out: your body doesn't know that you're making art. You think about struggle and challenge and you imagine yourself weighing 302 pounds and being restricted and in despair. Your body doesn't know that that's not the case.

Because I live in California now, I find my musings really being centered in this world.

If you don't like something about yourself, change it. If you're OK with it, you gotta own it. There's nothing in between.