New York is a wonderful place to be up, an awful place to be down.

At night we are all strangers, even to ourselves.

Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.

Everybody has friends they dislike; people who they have slipped into relationships with, people they would not have chosen had they been more cautious, more circumspect.

As a writer, I have readers who will have a range of political views. I don't think they look to me for political guidance.

I am easily persuaded to continue to have fun.

It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.