A Lonely Childhood
“I was a sad child,” Ingrid once said of herself, “very lonely.” She managed to cope with the solitude by inventing characters she could talk to. She also used to imagine herself as a completely different person. “Sometimes it doesn’t affect you if you can put on the character of somebody else,” she explained.
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Ingrid’s imagination was her true home. As long as she could tap into her little fantasies, she felt safe. By the time she was old enough to read, she began reciting full-on monologues to herself. She would walk around the room and act out dramatic poems, hand gestures and all.