While working in advertising, I channelled my creative energy into elaborate escape fantasies: cake making, dog breeding, the Peace Corps.

Such a courageous boy I was. To act brazenly under scrutiny and risk further injury to my wounded heart. Ah, the resilience, the blind, dumb persistence of youth.

I felt a momentary urge to leap into the sea and swim free of the present.

After all this time, I know exactly where I belong.

I, a late riser, fantasise about getting up every morning at 5 A.M. to fetch the horses in from the fields.

If there was ever a more perfect day in the history of time it isn't one I've heard about.

I guess there was a war going on somewhere in the world that night but it wasn't one that could touch us.