Sort of. I'm going to explain briefly, how that happened

I want you to understand just how mysterious careers can be before you go out and have one yourself

So I graduated from Princeton without having published a word of anything, anywhere

I didn't write for the Prince or for anyone else

But at Princeton, studying art history

I felt the first twinge of literary ambition

It happened while working on my senior thesis

My adviser was a really gifted man professor named William Childs

The thesis I wrote for him... I tried to explain how the Italian sculptor

Donatello used Greek and Roman sources that's actually totally beside the point but I've always wanted to tell someone

God knows what Professor Childs actually thought of it but he helped me to become engrossed

Actually more than engrossed, totally obsessed

When I handed it in I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life

I want to write senior theses. Or, to put it differently, to write books

Then I went to my thesis defense

It was just a few yards from here, in McCormick Hall

I listened and waited for Professor Childs to say how well written my thesis was

He didn't. And so after about 45 minutes I finally said

So. What did you think of the writing?

Put it this way, he said. Never try to make a living at it

And I didn't, not really

I did what everyone does who has no idea what to do with themselves

I get out of the college and went to graduate school