The Love Lives of the Artists is my first work. I wanted to know why artists insisted on keeping more than one lover, and why husbands and wives alike permitted them their erotic freedom—why they suffered their jealousies—why they even encouraged each other’s affairs.The turmoil in their romantic lives seemed to be linked to their identity as artists—it even seemed to be a poignant inspiration for their art, but no one had told the stories of what they made of their relationships, so I told them myself, in five 20,000-word stories.