Now I know that that is just the phenomena of eating this way. Most all of my letters say I hit a plateau and then one morning I woke up and the melt had happened.

The result was that if it happened to clear off after a cloudy evening I frequently arose from my bed at any hour of the night or morning and walked two miles to the observatory to make some observation included in the programme.

The worst part about pregnancy would definitely have to be my nausea. I don't know why it's just called morning sickness because morning sickness never just happened in the morning for me and it's not happening just in the morning for my sister.

What is news? It's hard to quantify. Certainly news has changed completely and the morning shows are not really designed to bring you the news except to tell you what happened overnight and the rest of it is a kind of magazine mentality - a little bit of this a little bit of that. It's harder to be an educated and informed citizen.

I'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me 'Good God Vidal what happened to your face?' And I said 'Oh nothing madam I just fell over a hairpin.'

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind and behold all things are changed!

In the seventies a group of American artists seized the means not of production but of reproduction. They tore apart visual culture at a time of no money no market and no one paying attention except other artists. Vietnam and Watergate had happened everything in America was being questioned.

You know my main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous all the attention to it because it's hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that's happened to me.

It was an honor and privilege to arrive to this country 16 years ago with almost no money in my pocket. A lot has happened since then.

My mom died of cancer when I was really young. I'm not someone who tries to work out their own stuff with a role but I think that happened despite my best efforts to keep myself separate from it.