But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.

Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?

But it turns out that people who are grounded and secure don't change much under stress. That's what being grounded means.

Professors go batty too, perhaps more often than other people, although owing to their profession, their madness is less often remarked.

As a matter of fact I had a terribly traumatic childhood. But afterward I sort of reraised myself.

But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.

The problem with evil people is that they can see only evil in others. It is one of the worst curses of being evil, that you can no longer experience good.