Years ago I'd heard another story about an actor who couldn't act; a distinguished actor — came out on the stage, and he was like me or you would be, you know — and he couldn't act; and the notion of someone losing everything like that is interesting.  And so I've been, I made... invented my actor in The Humbling — he's humbled. It's funny, in many languages apparently there is no word for humbled, so the book has been translated as The Humiliation, which is not what it's about. But he's humbled, and then he gets involved with this young lesbian girl who he… who he... who becomes heterosexual with him, which is also an interesting situation as well; and he loses that too, so he loses everything.

And I've never had a character… I think I've only had one other suicide in any book of mine, and that's in Everyman; and it's not the main character, it's a subsidiary character who is... husband has died, and is racked by back pain. But the character in The Humbling is the first major character I ever had who committed suicide; and I remember when I was writing it, I wanted to see if I could get there — I mean, could I... could I make the suicide inevitable — surprising, but inevitable — just as suicides are? And whether I did I don't know, but that's what I wanted to do.