I had the pleasure, just very recently... my cardiologist has a daughter who has a novel and he was very useful to me about five years ago after a complicated surgery from which I almost died. It had nothing to do with my heart, which is fine. But I didn't die, ha ha ha! But I always felt good about him and I like him, and his daughter's manuscript came to me and it was terrific. And after the first page, I said, "Thank God," you know? So I sent it to my agent, and she's going to pursue it.

EB: I hope you're not encouraging people out there to send manuscripts your way. Only if they know your cardiologist, right?

RBP: I won't read stuff except if it's friends. Saving my life was a plus! That gives him one, yeah, I owe him one! He was one of the team that saved my life.

Generally speaking that was the only one I've seen... no, there's one other. A young woman wrote a short story for a class assignment and her father showed it to me and asked my view on it. And I said, "Tell her to keep doing this. If she keeps doing this she's going to be a successful writer. She'll publish, she'll make money."

Jesus, don't listen to your English teachers! Just keep doing this and don't listen to what other people have to say. That might be my only tip: ignore what other people tell you. Don't listen to them!

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