As a child, he never knew who his father was. He reasoned that he never missed having a father as he never had anything to miss, and it allowed him to imagine that his father could be anyone he wished. He was looked after by a nanny who spent most of her time watching daytime television. "One Life to Live" was the inspiration to write his first novel. He was further inspired to become a writer when a man (later revealed to be the father he never knew) handed him a copy of Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" at the New York Public Library when he was ten years old. He also claims to have been kicked out of all of New York's finer academic institutions at least once, and to have picked up speed reading while spending his days as a child in the New York Public Library.