My father was an engineer - he wasn't literary, not a writer or a journalist, but he was one of the world's great readers.

Nineteen is as alive as 40-plus. I can vividly remember 19 and how I saw the world.

My mother never met a gadget she didn't like. There were tube pans for baking the angel food cakes my father could have after his first heart attack, and Bundt pans and loaf pans and baking pans and grilling pans.

My father was a journalist.

A lot of people think they should be happy all the time. But the writer understands you need both. You need the whole piano: the richness of the whole human experience. Depression, suffering and anger are all part of being human.

I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.