In hindsight, I think I was outrunning my marriage. We were just married prior to my being diagnosed and we didn't really know each other very well.. getting to know each other's coping skills. It probably distracted us from the reality that loomed, quite honestly. It was the captain of the high school football team with the little Ally Sheedy goth girl. It was really very 'Breakfast Club'.

I find [turning forty]very freeing. It's probably different for men, but for women when you start getting less-self-conscious, it usually corresponds with being fucking forty. It takes us that long to get it together. I think I finally have the ability to be really honest and embrace living the artist life, saying 'This is who I really am'. Never mind cancer. I never really had a chance to experience my own cancer, partly because I thought I was outrunning it.

Women don't like to be politically incorrect. But we already are.