Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?

I interrupt too much.

No sense of humor.

I’m certainly not going to tell it here.

That I give way too quickly.

I’d rather name one for someone else. I’m egomaniacal.

Overall I’d have to say my earnestness.

If I had a trait that I truly deplored, I would work to erase or modify it…Probably, a lack of discipline. (Though people think that I write quickly, & don’t revise, quite the reverse is true.) To myself, I work very slowly & painstakingly, & am often frustrated by accomplishing so little. My friend Margaret Atwood has said that in the late afternoon she is likely to be overcome by a feeling of desperation that she has accomplished so little that day, & this is a feeling I share, often. It seems that I waste most of my time gazing out the window here at my (overgrown) garden; & when I am in Berkeley, where I spend about one-third of the year, I am forever gazing out the window toward the San Francisco Bay & a continually changing, always-beautiful sky.

The inability to laugh before 11 a.m.

The inclination to pretend I read a friend’s book when maybe I didn’t completely finish.

Short-term memory.

The only drink I really, really like is champagne.

Catastrophising.

When I’m self-involved or insensitive to others.

My phobias. I’m down to two, so I take that as a positive sign.

Minding not being liked.

At this time in my life, I quite like myself but, for a large portion of my life, I deplored being shy.

I’m lazy domestically. I don’t do housework. My mother would have called me a slut.

That I have no patience.

My difficulty to forgive.

Impatience and being bossy.