
I say fortunately, because the samples that did manage to survive are terrible, with the single exception of a rather nice letter I wrote to my father when I was seven. Fortunately, very few samples of my early writing survived the eighteen moves I made before I was eighteen years old. I must have tried writing soon afterward. I know I began reading when I was four or five, because I couldn't stand not being able to. When I was twenty, I wanted to get married and have lots of children.Īnother question I can't answer is, "When did you begin writing?" I can't remember. But when I was ten, I wanted to be either a movie star or a missionary.

One is, "When did you first know that you wanted to become a writer?" The fact is that I never wanted to be a writer, at least not when I was a child, or even a young woman.


People are always asking me questions I don't have answers for.
