Sheldon Alberts, The Ottawa Citizen - WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush is prone to bouts of crying caused by the stress of his job, and claims to have seen ghosts emerge from the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, according to a new book on his presidency.

In a series of remarkably candid admissions by a sitting president, Mr. Bush confides to author John Draper that he has been "sustained by the discipline of the faithful experience" during the most difficult days of his presidency.

"I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot," Mr. Bush says in Dead Certain : The Presidency of George W. Bush, which was released to U.S. bookstores yesterday.

"I do a lot of crying in this job. I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count, as president. I’ll shed some tomorrow."

Hampered by some of the worst approval ratings of any U.S. president, Mr. Bush reveals that he tries to keep the mood at the White House "relatively lighthearted," and that his wife, Laura, often gives him a gentle reproach to jolt him out of his gloomier moods.

"She reminds me that I decided to do this. Nobody decided it but me," Mr. Bush says.

"Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity."

Mr. Draper, a national correspondent for GQ, conducted six interviews with Mr. Bush in recent years — most recently in May 2007 — and coaxed a bevy of previously unknown details about some of the most turbulent moments of his presidency.

Perhaps the oddest revelation is an episode from 1992, when Mr. Bush’s father, George Bush Sr., was still president and the son was visiting the White House. The younger Bush found the White House a "creepy place," Mr. Draper writes. After exercising in a White House gym one evening, Mr. Bush told a friend he froze in his steps while approaching the Lincoln Bedroom.

Mr. Bush insists "he saw ghosts — coming out of the wall," according to a friend.