Changes

I think I always knew I would write about ''David''. I don’t love him, the way I do the little Apollo-David in the Bargello or the youthful Pietà in Rome, but he is a part of my mental furniture, like Greek myths or Beatles songs. I feel as the mountaineer did about Everest, that he is just so THERE, he is a challenge. It’s hard to imagine the world before ''David'' was revealed to the Florentine public. And now it’s hard for me to remember what life was like before there was ''David'' the novel. I hope the young man who became ''David'' will feel as real to readers as he does to me.