Relationships Do Not Preclude Issues Of Morality.

Do What I Will Never Do.

It Was Not In My Nature To Be An Assertive Person. I Was Used To Looking To Others For Guidance, For Influence, Sometimes For The Most Basic Cues Of Life. And Yet Writing Stories Is One Of The Most Assertive Things A Person Can Do. Fiction Is An Act Of Willfulness, A Deliberate Effort To Reconceive, To Rearrange, To Reconstitute Nothing Short Of Reality Itself. Even Among The Most Reluctant And Doubtful Of Writers, This Willfulness Must Emerge. Being A Writer Means Taking The Leap From Listening To Saying, "listen To Me."

Fiction Is The Only Way I Know A Human Being Can Inhabit The Mind Of Another Human Being.

A Bicultural Upbringing Is A Rich But Imperfect Thing

The Thought Of Christmas Overwhelms Him. He No Longer Looks Forward To The Holiday; He Wants Only To Be On The Other Side Of The Season. His Impatience Makes Him Feel That He Is Incontrovertibly, Finally, An Adult.