I like to write first-person because I like to become the character I'm writing.

But what are our stories if not the mirrors we hold up to our fears?

If you risked love, it took you wherever you wanted to go. If you repressed it, you ended up unhappy.

However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.

My Italian-American heritage, of which I'm very proud and with which I identify strongly, surfaces in several of my novels.

Eastern Connecticut is very different from Western; we're more liverwurst than pâté, more bowling than polo.

If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.