The stories in this collection were created by two people: The me who
watches and the me who writes.
Both of these creatures inside myself have lived under one sign, which has
hung over my typewriter for seventy years: Don’t think, do.
I haven’t thought about any of these stories; they are explosions or
impulses. Sometimes they are big explosions of ideas that cannot be resisted, sometimes small
impulses coaxed to grow.
My favorite here is ‘Massinello Pietro’ because it happened to me many years
ago, when I was in my early twenties and lived in and out of a tenement in downtown L.A.
Massinello Pietro became a friend of mine whom I tried to protect from the police and help
when he was brought into court. The short story that was
inspired by this friendship is, in many ways, basically true and I simply had to write it.
The other stories, one by one, came to me throughout my life – from a very
young age through my middle and later years. Every one of them has been a passion. Every story
here was written because I had to write it. Writing stories is like breathing for me. I watch: I get an idea, fall in love with it, and try not to think too
much about it. I then write: I let the story pour forth onto the
paper as soon as possible.
So here you are with the works of the two people living inside my skin. Some
may surprise you. And that is good. Many of them surprised me when they came to me and asked to
be born. I hope you enjoy them. Don’t think about them too much. Just try to love them as I
love them.
