1. What is your typical day like? Do you continue to make time for writing every day, or do you consider yourself mostly a psychotherapist now?

I usually try to write 3-4 days a week, at lunch. I have a full practice from 9am to 6pm, with about 35-40 patients a week, so I'd say about 10% of my time is devoted to writing now. I wish that I had a little more time to write, but I don't miss show business at all. I was very lucky, and fairly successful, and I'm grateful for what being in show business gave me, but I would rather be a therapist and a prose writer. I just finished a novel and a proposal for a new book, and I'm always writing short stories. I don't get the volume I had (in sheer number of pages) when I was a full-time writer, of course, but I keep writing as much as I can.

2. If you could take one thing from Pittsburgh and give it to LA, what would it be? From LA to Pittsburgh?

From Pittsburgh to LA? The sense of community. My impression in growing up and going to school there was that Pittsburgh was very communal; everyone you knew was in the same neighborhood with everything you needed nearby. A family would grow up in one place and their kids would grow up and buy the house next door. LA is huge and spread out, and everything is fragmented. From LA to Pittsburgh: I would make Pittsburghers more open-minded about lifestyles and choices. People come to LA to reinvent themselves and the east coast, Pittsburgh included, is more tradition-bound. However, one of the things that makes Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, with its sense of community, is its cloistered attitude. These are gross generalizations, of course!

3. What was the hardest part of getting in to the "business" as a newly graduated Pitt student? What was easier than you expected?

The same things that are hard for everyone: getting my material read and finding an agent. The difference for me was the education I received. The writing department at Pitt was fabulous and they gave me a great foundation of skills. In LA, there are big famous film schools with ties to studios, and they know all about the industry and can get internships at the studios they're associated with. But they don't teach you how to write! I got a really good storytelling foundation at Pitt. As for things being easier than I expected, nothing was easy. I started out as a stand-up comic and Gabe Kaplan, the star of Welcome Back, Kotter came in and saw me and asked me to go on the road with him and write material. From there, I got into writing for the TV show, and then for a feature film. I was very lucky, with a helping of desperation! Ben Hogan said, though: The harder I work, the luckier I get. Hard work and perseverance are what make luck happen for you; if you work hard, you'll be luckier than if you don't.

4. I know that you are a fan of "whole person" writing - how do you feel being a psychotherapist has affected your writing? Is it strange to work as a therapist in LA when you come from Pittsburgh, where therapy is not at all widespread?

I feel my writing has deepened and is more connected to who I am, it's more personally relevant. It is strange, yes, to work as a therapist! When I first began therapy as a patient many years ago, I had resisted for years because I thought only crazy people went to therapists. I went through a re-education as a patient before I saw it as a viable option for a career. [Here I asked if it was true that everyone in Hollywood has a therapist] Yes, everyone has a therapist who can afford one, and a personal trainer, and maybe a psychic. There's such a narcissistic attitude to people who work in Hollywood; yet, you can't be successful without that narcissism. It is really hard to be out here and be an artist, though, and therapy has saved people's lives.

5. Are you going to continue writing screenplays? If not, what's next? How are writing screenplays and writing books/short stories/whatever different for you?

I am not writing screenplays anymore, no; I stopped when I became a therapist. When I was at Pitt, I wanted to be a prose writer, a novelist. When I left show business, I saw it as my opportunity to get back into writing prose. I did like screenwriting, but it was so frustrating when what you were saying was altered or deleted. As a prose writer, there are fewer filters between myself and my reading audience; what I write is what they read, which is really amazing compared to the Hollywood system.

6. Having been both a writer and a teacher, do you have a preference? Why? Has one helped to enrich the other?

I prefer writing, although I did like teaching. I like the process of writing more, and now that I have less time for it, I appreciate it more and it feels more special. Teaching helped improve my writing, absolutely. We teach what we need to learn, and critiquing other people's writing makes your own writing better. I'm a big believer in writing as a craft: something that takes work and study and knowledge of structure to get right. People undervalue craft when they compare it to art. All of the writers and artists we admire wouldn't have a s big an impact on us if they didn't have craft. I guess maybe that's part of my Pittsburgh roots; I have a blue-collar approach to writing. It's all about hard work. I don't have some lofty view of it, I think you should just sit down in the chair and write!

7. What do you do when you are procrastinating or have writer's block? Do you follow your own advice?

Yes, I do follow my own advice more now. I don't get that many blocks anymore, of course, because I'm not writing as much. If I'm feeling blocked, I write about feeling blocked! Anything that puts words on the page frees you from procrastination or being stuck. I think that writers need to write their way out of a problem. You can't read your way out, or think your way out; you just have to write your way out!

8. What do you believe is the most difficult problem facing screenwriters (or any kind of writer) today?

Probably, for screenwriters it's maintaining personal vision in a very commercial marketplace. That might be true of all writers now; my clients tell me it's getting harder to be a novelist or bookwriter now as well. It's always been hard, of course. Artists have always had problems with their work, but art always survives.

9. What advice would you like to give to young aspiring writers?

Write a lot and read a lot.

10. Is there anything you could suggest to help Pittsburgh build a stronger film community? What would you have liked to see at Pitt when you were a student here, knowing what you know now?