Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, talks to TIME about his new novel Chances Are …, our nearness to war and the truth about destiny. You often use your life to inspire your books. Are you in the three 66-year-old friends at the center of Chances Are …? My not wanting to go out too far on a limb, my worrying sometimes if I’m playing things too safe–all of that I off-loaded onto Lincoln.