You think you have some stable talent which will show no matter what you're writing, and if it doesn't seem to be getting across to the audience once, you can't imagine that moment when it suddenly will.

Of course, you always think about how it will be read. I always aim for a reading in one sitting.

Writers are only rarely likable.

I know what "nothing" means, and keep on playing.

In fact I no longer value this kind of memento. I no longer want reminders of what was, what got broken, what got lost, what got wasted. There was a period, a long period, dating from my childhood until quite recently, when I thought I did. A period during which I believed that I could keep people fully present, keep them with me, by preserving their mementos, their "things," their totems.

Mourning has its place but also its limits.

New York was no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion.