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I'm very learning-disabled, and I think it drove me to what I'm doing.

When I was growing up, I was told I was stupid and that I would never achieve. I suffered from dyslexia, and in those days it wasn't recognised.

You can't separate me from my upbringing as a child overcoming learning disabilities and having to make my way through that.

I was a good student, but a speech impediment was causing problems. One of my teachers decided that I couldn't pronounce certain words at all. She thought that if I wrote something, I would use words I could pronounce. I began writing little poems. I began to write short stories, too.

I had lots of trouble in school as a child, and I lost confidence. Teachers thought I was stupid. I learned to read very late, when I was 11. Dyslexia wasn't recognized then, and the assumption was you were incapable of thinking.

I spent a lot of time in the school psychologist's office. I didn't apply myself. My mother thought I had learning disabilities.

I used to think of myself in terms of who I'd be if I didn't have this pesky old disability.

It was ability that mattered, not disability, which is a word I'm not crazy about using.