I just wanted to do the stories. I don't know why. Maybe the same instinct as "Kilroy was here." I've always been really glad to be alive, you know. I've thought that things that I see and hear, a lot of it is just wonderful. I wanted to preserve some of it. I try to not use real people. I mean, [my characters] are a composite. I make them up, but I make them up from material that I have seen and known. James Joyce said about little tales that he wanted to keep, "Pen that one down, will you."

The tragedies are equally valuable and human. I mean, whatever's human, I think, is good material if you tell the truth about what you feel and what you see. I like whatever is genuine in people, in art. And so, I just wanted to tell the truth - good or bad. I think it has a better chance of enduring, the truth does.