You can tell when something's not moving forward anymore. When the doubts you have about it don't go away.

Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to money, and so design had given way to expediency.

In the end, the tortures tearing the Lisbon girls pointed to a simple reasoned refusal to accept the world as it was handed down to them, so full of flaws.

I don’t know what you’re feeling, I won’t even pretend

I remember liking to write stories pretty early on. In fourth or fifth grade, they would give us the beginning of a story, and we were supposed to finish it. I remember liking that. But I didn't think about deciding to become a writer until high school at about the age of 16.

Some cities have fallen into ruin and some are built upon ruins but others contain their own ruins while still growing.

On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.