You must read a lot of personal essays - you needn't reinvent the wheel.

Confession makes you a more trustworthy narrator.

Domesticity has been a challenge for me but painful as it's been, engaging with family has been a school for reducing solipsism and increasing my understanding of people's different reactions to stress.

I'm fortunate in being able to find great satisfaction in my work.

I imagined a psychic pain growing inside him (myself) that demanded some physical outlet. Suicide must have been his attempt to give Pain a body, a representation, to put it outside himself. A need to convert inner torment into some outward tangible wound that all could see. It was almost as though suicide were a last-ditch effort at exorcism, in which the person sacrificed his life in order that the devil inside might die.

Indeed, at times it's best to shut up.

For most of my life, I have wanted broad impact but now, at 72, I'm not so sure that's always my first priority.