I have this terrible habit of saying what I think. It's gotten me nowhere in life, but I don't plan on changing it. I have learned to be silent as an alternative to saying something unwelcome or unpalatable. I have never learned to insist on my opinion being heard. I'm not particularly interested in forcing people to understand my position on some issue or other. But don't ask me what I think and expect me to give you the easy answer. Oddly, or perhaps understandably, I'm much more circumspect in print than in conversation.
I prefer women's company to men's because when women talk you actually find out something about them. When men talk you mostly exchange facts. It's sort of like reading a novel versus reading a newspaper. There's truth and depth and importance to both kinds of information, but one is more satisfying than the other. I talk to both; I read both; I'd never want to choose one over the other. I know a lot of people who have the opposite preference.
I can sleep anywhere at any time. I once fell asleep on a bed in a room full of people with Robert Silverberg sitting next to me telling stories. I always fall asleep in moving vehicles, given sufficient time to do so. I nap easily and often and have rarely suffered insomnia. People hate me for this ability. I think it's a gift.
If I won the lottery tomorrow and could buy whatever I wanted, I'd immediately hire a housekeeper, a cook, and a masseuse. Then I'd get more animals. I've wanted a horse since I can remember. (I've also wanted a cow since I can remember. I have no explanation for this.) I'd do the normal things like pay off my debts, buy a better computer, make gifts to my friends. I'd also arrange to never work again. And after all that, I'd start buying art.
I have no college degree. I used to think that meant that I was stupid and lazy. Now I realize it just means I'm only motivated to work my way through difficult, unpleasant subjects, like Algebra, when I can apply their meaning to real life. Simply being required to do them for a degree isn't enough motivation. On the other hand, I need no reason to intensely study literature, languages, music, or history. I've been doing it on my own for years, which is why I have something worth saying despite my lack of formal education. I wish I didn't care that I don't have a degree.
The most baffling thing anyone has ever said about me is, "You're not a people person." This may strike some as odd, considering the first paragraph, but it seems wrong to me. I like people. I want people to like me. I just don't care if they don't.
