Think about all the great leaders. Think about Obama. Think about Clinton. Think about Nelson Mandela. Think about all the people that we know who are very successful in business in politics and religion. What are they? They tell purposeful stories. They move people to action by aiming at the heart.

Well religion has been passed down through the years by stories people tell around the campfire. Stories about God stories about love. Stories about good spirits and evil spirits.

I try to just talk about human stories and what I think about religion or teapots or whatever.

I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book. But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate.

Everything Sholom Aleichem talks about in his plays and his short stories is about people family man's relationship with his God the breaking down of tradition.

I've just finished my next collection Possible Side Effects and I'm now working on a collection of holiday stories as well as a memoir about my relationship with my father.

I can sort of do what I want. Maybe I have to work harder to prove myself in some new relationship because they've heard some wacky stories about me. But at least I can get the meeting.

You know sex is actually not so original as the way people love or the stories behind each relationship which is what you remember. Sex is sex in the end.

I've received a lot of positive feedback from both the secular and Christian markets. People seem to be receiving it with open arms and hearts and are interested in the stories I want to share about my relationship with God and my faith.

I'd like to feel that an advertiser gets something extra when they advertise with us - a certain humanity that comes from upbeat and positive human interest letters and success stories.