I think each book has its own way of accommodating my concerns, whether it's about race, America, technology, the city.

The only time "early bloomer" has ever been applied to me is vis-a-vis my premature apprehension of the deep dread-of-existence thing. In all other cases, I plod and tromp along. My knuckles? Well dragged.

Talking about New York is a way of talking about the world.

I didn't have to do that much research to present a post-apocalyptic New York because I basically grew up in that New York. That old New York is gone, and that's one thing that's undiscoverable now but I explore in my fiction.

The city knows you better than any living person because it has seen you when you are alone.

New York City in life was much like New York City in death. It was still hard to get a cab, for example.

Sanctimony and self-regard are as American as smallpox blankets and supersize meals.