My new editor/publisher, Leon, copped tickets to a Broadway play because he’s already signed a book deal with the author, Tom Stoppard. I’m not really big on attending theater, but Leon promised we would get backstage and I’m always up for checking things out. Plus Tom Stoppard must be a cool guy.

The play was all right. About African politics. I wasn’t playing complete attention, because I was distracted by the actress playing the young wife.

Anyway, after the show Leon and I went backstage. Through all these doors and stairwells, to the green room where Stoppard was meeting his director. So we’re hanging out with Tom Stoppard, a nice man, a little distracted because I guess the New York previews weren’t going as well as the London shows went, and we’re talking about the book he’s going to write for Leon and then the actress playing the young wife, Elizabeth Joel, pops her head in, to say good night to Tom, she was going back to her apartment, had to rest her voice, etc. etc.

We all got introduced and the next thing I know I was shaking Ms. Joel’s hand and then the most amazing thing happened. She said, “You’re not the Richard Morris, are you?” I almost did one of those Marx Brothers routines and looked behind me to see who she was talking to.

Incredibly, this beautiful actress, Elizabeth Joel, has read my stories. And Elizabeth Joel loves my stories. She’s a writer herself. I told her I thought her acting was terrific and if her stories were halfway as good as her performance, then she should write a book, BLAH-BLAH-BLAH.

We agreed to call one another to discuss “our work.” All this actually happened. This is not a dream. I made a date with Elizabeth Joel. Broadway star. And the way she smiled at me, it’s going to be more than that, I can feel it.

We’re going to see each other tomorrow night after her performance. Called Katie in Minneapolis. Told her I was being good—no drinking, no drugging. Didn’t tell her about Elizabeth Joel.

March 22, 1979

Elizabeth and I have spent the last five days together. The most intense experience of my life. I’m not sure I can describe it here. I will have to write a story about it. We’re talking on the phone every night. This is the brilliant relationship I’ve always dreamed of. We are both fully realized artists and we have each other and so we don’t just fuck each other’s bodies, we fuck each other’s minds.