Most of the people I write about have been ambitious outlanders who have been attracted to New York from other parts of the world.

Everything becomes symbol and irony when you've been betrayed

I remain a fan of my friend Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho.' I think as a book about New York in the '80s it was pretty excellent.

Most novelists I know went through a period of intense self-examination and self-loathing after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. I certainly did.

Yeah, 'Gossip Girl' is a good show. It's a real New York show, like 'Sex and the City.

I don't think I've left a trail of weeping women in my wake. I mean, the number of serious relationships I've had has not been into double digits.

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.