I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Reading was my escape from the legendary Buffalo winters and probably contributed to my becoming a writer.

I began writing poetry while I was in graduate school, some of which was published in small literary magazines. The first sentence in REALITIES—My children are gambling— was the first line of a poem that grew into a novel. It was gratifying to see REALITIES published, not only in the United States but in England and Sweden, where it was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

The idea for a novel can come from anywhere. THE LAST SEASON, THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE started with an image of three middle-aged adults sitting at a dinner table, a married couple and an unmarried man. When the husband asked the man what his intentions were, the fellow replied, "I intend to marry your wife." The image was a gift, and I had to run with it.

Fiction can take you places and introduce you to subjects you might want to know more about. I wrote THE WRITERS' CONFERENCE to open the world of publishing to readers and aspiring writers, a world most people will never see.

In HARRY DANCED DIVINELY, I returned to the 1950s. To my surprise, the stories, which are all fictional, didn't have the "Leave It to Beaver" innocence that I believed growing up in a house like the homes I created on Giffort Street.

Years ago, I climbed the Great Wall of China. When I reached the top, I saw men standing with their shoulders back and their chests held high to have their pictures taken next to a red rectangular sign that had Chinese writing on it. I didn't have a clue as to what the writing said. Later in the day I asked my Chinese guide about the sign. He laughed. "It says "You are a man when you have climbed the Great Wall of China.'"

I think fiction should be as surprising as that sign.