New York was an idea, I thought, an idea held simultaneously by thirteen million people.

New York City was the world's biggest vibrator. Everything vibrated above, and below the streets.

If you have a dream of writing, that's wishful thinking. If you have a commitment to writing, that's the way to make your dreams come true.

It was at our library that I found Nancy Drew and fell in love with the genre. I've been grateful ever since for those tolerant, book-loving librarians who allowed a child like me to read what I wanted to read.

New York was an idea, I thought, an idea held simultaneously by thirteen million people.

You can have faith in writing itself. That's where to place your faith, in the same way that a pole vaulter places his faith in the laws of physics. He will go up in direct proportion to the strength with which he pushed off, and he will come down every time.

Welcome to New York, where everybody's a stranger, and nobody is.