Short
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Art is a critical component in a well-rounded education. Art is the level playing field — no matter how rich or poor, tall or short, pretty or ugly to the bone, if you can draw, you can find personal fulfillment and build self-confidence. Art is the highest achievement of mankind.
To me, art and storytelling serve primal, spiritual functions in my daily life. Whether I'm telling a bedtime story to my kids or trying to mount a movie or write a short story or a novel, I take it very seriously.
Life is too short, and I'm Italian. I'd much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0.
After college, I was burdened with student loans to repay, no financial cushion, so I wasn't in a position to bet everything on a creative-writing career — neither the writing-workshop academia life nor the freelance-writer version, trying to scrape by on short stories and house-painting gigs.
