How do you know if your child is a writer? Your obstetrician holds his stethoscope to your abdomen and only hears excuses.

My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them.

When I'm supposed to be writing I clean my apartment, take my clothes to the laundry, get organized, make lists, do the dishes. I would never do a dish unless I had to write.

New York was always more expensive than any other place in the United States, but you could live in New York - and by New York, I mean Manhattan. Brooklyn was the borough of grandparents. We didn't live well. We lived in these horrible places. But you could live in New York. And you didn't have to think about money every second.

The Italians are the most civilized people. And they're very warm. Basically, they're Jews with great architecture.

The great thing about New Jersey is that it's close to New York.

When you reach a certain age, suddenly there are lots of people younger than you, which is really startling.