I really had no idea whatsoever. I feel that my life developed as I went along. I was never one of those people who, at an early age, had picked an objective and worked steadily towards it. All I knew was that I wanted to get involved in adventurous activity. I didn’t have any specific type of activity in mind, but I wanted to do things that were exciting and adventurous. I had a fairly diffused feeling as to what precisely it should be.

A mutant turtle ninja.

A veterinarian, but I decided against it because it required too many years of schooling; I wasn’t great at school.

A nurse, because my grandmother was a midwife. I was named after her but never got to meet her.

I haven’t done it yet.

Seeing the future die, from Bobby Kennedy to dear friends.

I’ve had cancer three times, but never felt close to death except when I walked between parked cars on my street and a car sped past my nose.

Being a salesgirl in a baby shop where the others said things like, “He’s Jewish, but she’s American.” Also, after college, being a waitress in London, and trying to make change in the old money of shillings and pence.

Feeling you want someone else’s welfare as much and sometimes more than your own.

I’m walking down a street in New York, the sun is shining, I’m on my way to see friends who are chosen family—and I’ve just written a couple of pages that I like.