That Is The ROMAN WAY: To GIVE FAVORS To The FAVORITES.

As We All Know From The Roman EMPIRE, Big EMPIRES GO Down If The BORDERS Are Not Well-protected.

As A Child, I Was An OBSESSIVE Reader, As Was Everybody In My Family All Winter Long With My Father. I Think I Was Only 8 When I READ Edward Gibbon's 'The History Of The DECLINE And Fall Of The Roman EMPIRE.'

When The French Nation GRADUALLY Came Into Existence Among The Ruins Of The Roman CIVILIZATION In Gaul, A New Language Was At The Same TIME Slowly Evolved.

I Know That I Come From Mid-20th Century AMERICA, Urban, Specifically Downtown New York, Specifically An Italian-American Area, Roman CATHOLIC - That's Who I Am. And A Part Of What I Know Is There's A Decency To People Who Tried To Make A Living In The KIND Of World That Was AROUND Us And Also The Skid Row Area Of The Bowery; It Impressed Me.

One Time, I CAME Off Stage And A Guy Named Roman Decare, GOD Rest His Soul, He Was A Comic. 'Louie, If You Do That FAMILY STUFF, And You're A Clean Comic On Stage, You'll Become Famous.' And, For Some Reason, A Switch Clicked, And I Started Doing The Family Stuff, And It Became A Giant Part Of My Life.

The Main Motivation Was To Explore The EMPIRE's FALLING. I Mean 'Duck City' Is LIKE An Allegory For The Western Empire Or The United STATES. And I Was Thinking What Happens When It FALLS And Declines Like The Roman Empire.

As You KNOW, I Am NEITHER ROMAN CATHOLIC, Protestant Episcopalian, Nor Presbyterian, Nor Am I An Irishman.

The Gigantic Gaul Derided The ROMAN SOLDIERS As A BAND Of Pigmies.

I Decided I Was GOING To PLAY Cleopatra As SOMEONE With A BRAIN. She's Kept Egypt, This Tiny Country, In A Balance Of Power With The Almighty ROMAN Empire, And She's Done It Through Force Of Personality.