I can only write when the fit takes me--sometimes at night when I ought to be asleep; sometimes at meals when I ought to be handling my knife and fork; sometimes out of doors when I meet with inquisitive strangers who stare at me.

As for paper, the first stray morsel of anything that I can write upon will do, provided I snatch it up in time to catch my ideas as they fly.
"My method being now explained, I proceed to the deliberate act of self-betrayal which I contemplate in producing this picture of myself." II "I divide my life into two Epochs--respectively entitled: Before my Deafness, and After my Deafness.

Or, suppose I define the melancholy change in my fortunes more sharply still, by contrasting with each other my days of prosperity and my days of disaster?
Of these alternatives, I hardly know which to choose.

It doesn't matter; the one thing needful is to go on.
"In any case, then, I have to record that I passed a happy childhood--thanks to my good mother.

Her generous nature had known adversity, and had not been deteriorated by undeserved trials.