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And then I wrote my first autobiography when I - well, it was 23 years ago. And since then I've written about one book every two years.

My first book was the book that changed my life.

My first book is really comparable to what I do now, where it's pretty surreal and strange at moments, but that being my first book - I wrote that when I was 22; it came out when I was 24 - and it was just really overwritten. I just didn't trust myself as a writer to say something once.

I worked in publishing before I became an author, so I knew how a book gets made.

I started out as a novelist and wrote several novels before deciding to publish one, and I fully intend to go back to the form.

All the books I have written have been one book, from the beginning.

A lot of writers that I know have told me that the first book you write, you write about your childhood, whether you want to or not. It calls you back.

Becoming an author changes your attitude too. Once you see where books come from, and how they're made, they never seem quite as sacred again.

So, while I gave up the notions of publishing at that time, I never stopped editing and refining that book. A few years later, in 1987, I thought I had it ready to go out again.

Actually my first eight books were historical novels, but they were never published.