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I love art and I think I was destined to end up in some aspect of the arts.

I was a visual artist primarily and a writer, even from a very young age.

I began as a boy with artistic talent... as a visual artist... I thought that was what I'd become and in my late teens drifted into reading serious literature.

I was an art student at the time, like thousands of others.

From 17 to 21, I was obsessed by sport and art. In art, I loved the pre-Raphaelites and Rembrandt first. Then I discovered Salvador Dali, and it was like finding something I already knew.

I went to art school, I think it helped me a great deal because it taught me who I am.

I knew I was artistic, and I wanted to do something in the arts.

I have had an interest in art since childhood. I loved to draw as a child and still do.

But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.

I set my sights upon becoming the kind of artist who would make a contribution to art history.