Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for which I have all my life been grateful, the formation of fixed habits of work.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm thankful I grew up the way I did. It made me a hard worker and insightful to other people's lives.
After I was really unhappy and unhealthy, I think it dawned on me to stop doing the unhappy, unhealthy things.
At school I'd want to be so small that nobody could see me, and so my work depicts and reflects me - what it felt like to grow up in a world of pain.
I turned into a workaholic to the point of where my health was in jeopardy.
I found strength in what hurt me. And in my family - that's my strength as well. I'm truly grateful to be hurt as many times as I have, because I'm happy!
Work is the most nourishing thing so far in my life.
I look at my father, who was in many ways an unhappy person, but who, not long before he got sick, said that the greatest source of satisfaction in his life had been going to work in the company of other workers.
Being by the nature of my upbringing, all my energies having been directed to one channel of activity, crippled from other activities and made helpless even to live.
I do my best work when I am in pain and turmoil.
All my habits through life have been singularly removed from any condition of reliance on others, and the feeling - right or wrong - that aloneness is my proper position has prevailed since my early childhood, no doubt nourished and strengthened by many and quick-following bereavements.