My earliest journals go back to 1956, when I was still living in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. But they are extremely fragmentary. I didn't take up journal-writing again until 1972, when I was much under the influence of Anais Nin's journals. But I think it's fair to say I escaped that influence fairly readily and found my own voice. The volume of the writing from then until 1986, when I started using a computer to write, was impressive: more than 36,000 pages in 164 volumes 8.5"x5.5".

• 1996, as it ended.