Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Diane Keaton says her new memoir, Brother & Sister, revisits her brother's life.
The 74-year-old actress discussed the book, which focuses on her brother, Randy Hall, and his struggle with mental illness, during Monday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Hall was diagnosed with several conditions over the years, including bipolar disorder and schizoid personality disorder, but has never received a definitive diagnosis. Keaton explored her brother's life through his poems and collages as she wrote the book.
"When [my mother] died, I inherited her library. Her library was full of all her journals, and there's so many of them," Keaton said. "Then, when my brother got really ill, I inherited his. I never read all his poems or seen or looked at all his collages or any of it, really. So I had this opportunity to go back and revisit Randy, and also my mother's journey through life."
"I think it's important to definitely in some way, not necessarily write a book, but document to yourself what you've learned as you've gotten older about what you could have done better or something like that, " she added.
Keaton said Hall, 71, who is now diagnosed with dementia and lives in a care facility, will never be aware she wrote the book. She expressed some regret over her brother's life, which was met with assurance by host Ellen DeGeneres.
"Maybe I could have done better," Keaton said. "It's just really... it's great for me to have the opportunity to revisit my brother."
"All families are different. We're all so different. We all have these really intense, emotional experiences with our family. I think it's just really important to talk about it more within your family," she added.
In Brother & Sister, Keaton explores Hall's life as a talented poet and artist who was also a reclusive alcoholic and a man plagued by violent fantasies about women. She previously discussed her memoir in an interview with People.
"Over the years people did a lot of measuring of Randy's mental status, and it all came to naught," Keaton told the magazine. "He was so hidden. I wanted to explore the mystery of him."
Keaton said her brother used his art as an outlet for his fantasies, which she said he never acted on.
"There was no indication he would, in anything he'd ever done. He didn't have that bone in his body," she said. "He wrote about them and did collages instead."
Brother & Sister will be released Tuesday.
