Most notable for his role as Harry Goldenblatt, Charlotte York's boyfriend-turned-husband during the last three seasons of long-running HBO program Sex and the City, actor Evan Handler has accomplished more than success in Hollywood.

He has also found a place in the literary world with his second book, which will be released Thursday.

His second book, It's Only Temporary: The Good News and Bad News About Being Alive, delves into the struggles he went through in his 20s when battling a life-threatening illness and discusses how he dealt with life after surviving. Handler's first book, Time on Fire: My Comedy of Terrors, a one-man comedic stage show also chronicling his struggle with leukemia, was published as a book in 1996.

Handler is currently starring in the Showtime comedy Californication alongside David Duchovny, and finished working on Sex and the City: The Movie, which comes out May 30.

We recently talked with Handler about his book and acting career, and any plans he has for the future.

Q: Have you always been interested in writing?

A: Well, yeah, I mean I've always been interested. It was always sort of in the back of my mind as something I might do, but I didn't do any serious writing until my first book -- or I should say the material that started turning into my first book, the play that I did, Time on Fire.

Q: Is there any particular message you are trying to convey to people in their 20s?

A: There's no particular message. I just thought, you know, that a population that, one, would probably be interested in me because of Sex and the City and Californication and then, I think, would enjoy the story because it's essentially the story of a guy living his 20s in his 30s because his 20s sort of got wiped out by this illness. So, he's kind of stumbling and bumbling through romances -- the kind of figuring out that a lot of college students do post-college: 'How much do I live for the moment? How much do I invest in the future? But in an over-intensified way because of my particular history of having my life almost taken away in my mid-20s. So, I just thought that it's a lot of stories like Sex and the City and Californication -- of somebody trying to find love, trying to figure out where love fits in his life, but with this weird situation of having lived life kind of backwards; having been first a dying old man and then kind of recovered from that and thrust into young adulthood.

Q: What did you mean by "It's Only Temporary" in the title?

A: Well, you know we're only on this planet for so long. Time is not unlimited.

Q: So, this was just in reference to an entire life span?

A: Yeah. Well, an entire life and everything in it. I mean I like the title because it has dual and ironic meanings. So, yeah, the news about life is that, uh, well I suppose the bad news about life is that it's only temporary, but then the good news about the suffering parts of life are that they are only temporary, too. I mean everything is only temporary, nothing stays the same. A lot of what I wanted the book to be about was perspective changing over time. That's why I tried to write a lot of it as if I was going through it in the moment and the reader thinks I am going through these things currently. But then, as the book goes on, a lot of those things are reflected back upon... and I talk about how I don't feel the same way about any of those things.

Q: Do you find it ironic that your wrote about your relationship problems in the book and your role in Sex and the City is one in a serious relationship?

A: To me it's ironic that both me and a lot of guys that I know live lives of all kinds of wildness and adventure and yet, I would never be cast that way in a TV show or film. There's this conceit for television and film that you only get to play those parts if you cut the image of a David Duchovny or George Clooney. And the public seems to actually buy into this, like those are the only kinds of people that get to have a lot of crazy relationships, whereas my life has been more like a [David Duchovny's Californication character] Hank Moody life than a Harry Goldenblatt life. So I find that amusing, but I accept it. I mean, if I was casting a movie I wouldn't cast myself in one of those roles either.

Q: Do you feel that writing has helped you cope with everything you have gone through?

A: Um, no, I don't use writing as therapy like that. It doesn't heal me to write stuff down. I think I tend to write stuff down once I've pretty much processed it for myself. Maybe the first, Time on Fire, was a little bit different because I came out of that illness so enraged that it had happened to me and that recovering from it was made so much harder than I thought it needed to be. I definitely wanted to say that stuff publicly, and I was looking to maybe make myself better understood by people who knew me, but it's not like doing that, you know, soothed the anger for me. That's just something that time and effort and attention did.

Q: It's interesting that you describe so much of your anger during your illness because most people who haven't gone through anything like that don't really see that side of the entire experience, and you mentioned how surprised people were at your honesty. Do you want to inform readers about that aspect of illnesses?A: It's not like I'm on a campaign to enlighten people in any way. I mean, I write something if I think I have a unique viewpoint on it or a unique way of saying it, or maybe just a unique degree of willingness just to be more honest than other people, so I'll write it down and ... I hope that there are other people who can identify with it and will find it to be truthful ... I find it hard to imagine that I am the only guy who came out of an illness experience feeling that way ... I think many, many, many people experience trouble feeling as grateful in their lives as they think they should, and to hear that a guy who is obviously really lucky to be alive still struggles with the same stuff and even in a heightened way because of his own self awareness, that could be interesting and comforting for people to read. To know that it's OK to have that struggle, it's part of life.

Q: How is everything going with acting now with Californication and Sex and the City: The Movie?

A: Well, you know the movie was fun to do. I got to spend a couple of months in New York, and Californication is just about to start up again. We're looking forward to it, because last season was a lot of fun and it was really successful. The DVD set from the first season comes out mid-June and then the show will go back on the air a few months after that, so hopefully there will be even more people watching, and I think we are all excited to go back to something that was funny and fun to do.