They say the portrait painter always paints himself.

Very true, so an interview like this is not so far from the heart of the matter when it comes to talking with any writer, fiction or non-fiction, be they intimate confessor or widescreen cultural commentator. I think we always speak to ourselves first, that we search through ourselves in relation to the world around us. Then we hopefully make it interesting to other people in a story or poem – both through what we say and how we say it. That’s the process of writing and it should always be the process of writing: an act of discovery as you write – or a journey at the very least.

The Chelsea Dilemma: An Investigation into a Forgotten Citizen

There has to be something called reality in order for us to come to its rescue.  – Jean-Luc Godard

Mario Fattori is downtown. Paper cup of coffee. Dead Visa Card. What to do?

It is late and he needs a room. But the Chelsea Hotel is as closed to him as the mouths of the desk clerks in the lobby. Outside the neon has crapped out in the cold January winds : the sign above the entrance reads ‘ho…chel…’ A few residents snigger by and into the elevator, shouting the new abbreviation to the boys behind the counter. Their voices cut back and forth through Mario, jovial and jabbing.

Some coffee sloshes over his fingers as he tries to explain his situation again. A waste of time, a waste of coffee, he thinks. They forget him; they want to forget him. Why?