"Where did you learn to tell stories?" I'm often asked this by listeners or readers and I try to be honest in my response. Here's the full story:

I come from a family of accomplished liars. I don't say this by way of apology or warning; I say it as a preface the way somebody else might say "I come from a family of bankers" or, even more basically, "I come from New Jersey." My father, uncles, aunts, brothers, even my long-dead shadowy mother, all lied like their lives depended on it.