wanted to be a writer since I was pretty young.
I'm not really sure why. I didn't know any-
thing about it. I didn't know any writers grow-
ing up. But I just sort of had this urge.
ing's so great. I love it." It's more painful.
Doing the actual writing somehow lessens
the pain slightly but it's not one of those
joyful romps most of the time.
screenplay but I realized I was spending all
my time reading other people's stuff. So at
last I returned to New York and devoted my-
self to writing fiction. I had just finished a
tending one night.
being a writer was incredibly appealing to
me, but I was more of the typical blocked or
frustrated writer until I was 29. I had been
in the music business and had done a whole
bunch of other things, but after my son was
born I realized I could not live the kind of
life I wanted to live and become the kind of
father and person I wanted to be unless I was
working in a creatively fulfilling career.
world with commitment. We started in
earnest, meeting in the mornings at 8 a.m.,
went to work, trying to figure out what we
were going to write about, coming up with
some characters and outlining stuff.
poker club and lost all his money and
called me excitedly at three in the morn-
ing to say, "I think I've found the world we
can set our movie in!" So we started going
to the clubs every night and meeting in
the morning to outline and write the
script. That was Rounders.
ity and immersion to most any world we're
writing about. We're drawn into that world
Montreux awards), this degree is taught via 5 one week on campus residential periods,
combined with periods of distance learning at home, or anywhere in the world.