I have an internal protectiveness where it's like if it comes to just me as frightened as I am of losing someone I love or things going sour or simply being alone there is a dark place in my brain where I'm like It could happen and I'm okay I'm prepared.

I think it's interesting that 'cologne' rhymes with 'alone.'

If I'm alone too long I think too much and I'm not interested in doing that. That won't lead anywhere good I'm sure. If I'm busy I tend to stay out of trouble. An idle mind is the devil's playground.

What troubles me is the Internet and the electronic technology revolution. Shyness is fueled in part by so many people spending huge amounts of time alone isolated on e-mail in chat rooms which reduces their face-to-face contact with other people.

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments the governments alone independent of the interests of the people to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

Absolutely lonely people have few personal interactions of any kind.

It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.

Time in general has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally I am interested in old age.

The crucial task of old age is balance: keeping just well enough just brave enough just gay and interested and starkly honest enough to remain a sentient human being.

I also find it interesting that a lot of people in their 30s are not married and don't have kids. There are a lot of people in this age bracket that are out there dating and trying to find love. And I never thought that at my age I would be.