I Have A Suicide Impulse.

If We Want To Understand The Actions Of A Man In The Early 1860's, Put Yourself Back There In His Shoes. As A Young Man He Began Piloting Steamboats On The Mississippi, A Job He Loved And Wanted To Do The Rest Of His Life, He Said. The Civil War Ended Traffic On The River And His Job. He Wrote About It In A History Of A Campaign That Failed. He Said: "i Joined The Confederacy, Served For Two Weeks, Deserted, And The Confederacy Fell." His Attachment To The Southern Ideal Of Slavery Does Not Appear Very Sturdy.

[mark] Twain Called Congress "the Only Distinctly Native Criminal Class In America. We've Lately Sent A United States Senator To The Penitentiary." That Was A Fact.

I Developed A Resistance To Authority. Not To Discipline - I Learned That. But To Authority. I Like To Think For Myself. And I Like To Cause Trouble.

[mark] Twain Was A Publisher. He Published General Grant's Memoirs (a Big Success) And Had A Hand In The Publishing Of Many Of His Own Books. He Would, I Think, Be Very Keen About The Question Of How A Book Would Sell.

Please Don't Refer To Me As "channeling Mark Twain." I'm An Actor. Not A Channeler. That Word Is An Iphone Shortcut. Acting Is More Eloquent Than That.