I want to write books that can be read a hundred years from now, and readers wouldn't be bogged down by irrelevant details.

I'm a firm believer that there are no rules in art. Every trajectory is different.

Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.

When I write lyrics, I really do go into an automatic folk appropriation mode... I see the vernacular register of 20th century song as being a bunch of forms to adapt and reconfigure.

I don't write about anything I don't love even if that love sometimes gets all screwed up and tormented.

As much as I care about historical context - I'm very eager to read a really great historical account.

There were days when no kid came out of his house without looking around. The week after Halloween had a quality both hungover and ominous, the light pitched, the sky smashed against the rooftops.