PHILLIP LOPATE: When I was a kid in elementary school, I was usually called upon to write the Thanksgiving Day poem or the Columbus Day poem. And I had a knack for it. But I didn't think I was smart enough to be a writer. So I thought I would become a lawyer. And this is how modest I was at the time-- I thought I would become a lawyer who would help writers.
But then I went to college, and I hung out with the pre-law students, and I didn't have very much to say them. And I hung out with the wannabe writers, and they didn't seem any smarter than I was. So I thought, OK, let's give it a try.
And I think my experience is typical in that I bluffed my way into it. There was no "Eureka!" moment, no burning bush or anything like that. I just kept trying to write. And I was chosen the editor of Columbia Review, which was a literary magazine. And eventually people saw me as a writer. So I thought, well, maybe I am a writer.