What I'm nostalgic for is the idea of an edge in New York. There used to be these fringes of the city where civilization sort of ended, and therefore young people could live cheaply, or open nightclubs or art galleries, or even squat. That fringe moved out to New Jersey and Brooklyn. The whole idea of the metropolis is the centralization of like-minded souls, and when the central real estate becomes too expensive, the dreamers, the young poets, and the artists will go elsewhere.

There aren't many shy writers left.

Love is the eternal quest: almost everyone wants to love and be loved.

I'd like to have the kind of house someday where a carousel horse wouldn't be out of place in the living room.

The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families.

He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

There's a socialist bias to the consensus of the literary world: a '30s mentality that says factory workers are more worthy of our attention.