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

If I have three ideas and I'm working on one more than the others, that sort of tells me that I should work on that one.

Most people say, "Show, don't tell," but I stand by Show and Tell, because when writers put their work out into the world, they're like kids bringing their broken unicorns and chewed-up teddy bears into class in the sad hope that someone else will love them as much as they do.

New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy.

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

In terms of why everything is different, each book is different than the one before because I'm so bored of what I just finished I want to work on something different. The next book becomes an antidote to what I did before.

I write books and either people read them or they don't read them. The rise of Facebook or e-books doesn't change the difficulty level of writing sentences and thinking up new ideas.