only writers as prolific as balzac and joyce carol oates can claim it is. the best of us love other people's books and write too many emails. how else to fill up the obligatory eight hours? pornography, cooking and adultery are other ways. [applause] and of course, drinking. i once said so many writers are alcoholics because they can get away with it. i'm not denying that i have my struggles. after shelving for gay novels i managed to get only the fifth published and that was through the intervention of the poet and translator richard hollings who convinced random house to take it after they'd already rejected it. in our culture we ignore beginning writers and honor the experience excessively. when i started submitting novels in the pre-stonewall 1960s, my gay subject matter was offensive, especially since i didn't write about hustlers or criminals or drag queens but rather about the middle class guy sharing an office with you. the surveyor is more threatening than the exotic. years later various editors would tell me that they been moved by my submissions,