I Used To Think Getting Old Was

Her Wish To Die Was As Pervasive As A Dial Tone: You Lift The Receiver, It's Always There.

I'm Drawn To Write About Upstate New York In The Way In Which A Dreamer Might Have Recurring Dreams. My Childhood And Girlhood Were Spent In Upstate New York, In The Country North Of Buffalo And West Of Rochester. So This Part Of New York State Is Very Familiar To Me And, With Its Economic Difficulties, Has Become Emblematic Of Much Of American Life.

Art Is The Highest Expression Of The Human Spirit.

A Writer Who Has Published As Many Books As I Have Has Developed, Of Necessity, A Hide Like A Rhino's, While Inside There Dwells A Frail, Hopeful Butterfly Of A Spirit.

Yet The Fact Had No Consciousness Of Itself Except Through Me.