Cameron Crowe

I mean, it was a very, very difficult fighting.

And you said that in writing the book, you found yourself in conversation with Kathy.

You write in the book about Kathy, you said there were periods when she was just gone from us, even when she was sitting right there at the table.

It was confusing and scary for a kid.

The house felt different, like something fragile had cracked and we were all tiptoeing around it.

When Kathy was institutionalized, it changed the energy of the house completely.

There was a silence that hadn't been there before.

My parents were worried in a way that felt permanent.

I didn't really understand what was happening.

I just knew something was broken and nobody could explain it in a way that made sense to me.

You write that somewhere around first grade, Kathy came home.

And you said it with the words that changed everything.

The kids are teasing me about not being normal, she said.

My parents' lives had become a quest for Kathy's diagnosis.

Her emotions could swing wildly from sweetness to sadness.

What's wrong with Kathy, I asked.

My parents, who were probably as confused about her condition as I was, would struggle to explain it to me.

They used the phrase emotionally disturbed.

It was a kind explanation for the doctors in Los Angeles had also diagnosed as schizophrenic.

There was a lot of shame involved.