Thirteen years I took on this last book.

People go to restaurants for so many different reasons. To court a girl, to make some deal. Maybe to talk to some lawyer about how to get an alimony settlement better than they got last week.

Restaurants are a wonderful escape for me. And are for a lot of people.

For example, many colleges in their writing programs teach some of my work.

The Park Avenue of poodles and polished brass; it is cab country, tip-town, glassville, a window-washer's paradise.

I am writing about people who are alive in the city of New York during mid-20th-century America. And these people are like a character in a play or they are figures in a short story or a novel.

Sports is about people who lose and lose and lose. They lose games; then they lose their jobs. It can be very intriguing.