All new people. Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. The best thing about being an artist, instead of a madman or someone who writes letters to the editor, is that you get to engage in satisfying work. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage. I doubt that you would read a close friend's early efforts and, in his or her presence, roll your eyes and snicker.
Life is terribly time consuming.
I'm as good a mother as the next repressed, obsessive-compulsive paranoiac. There are few experiences as depressing as that anxious barren state known as writer's block, where you sit staring at your blank page like a cadaver, feeling your mind congeal, feeling talent run down your leg and into your sock.