Ultimately, we are not seeking others to bow to, but to reinforce our individual natures, to help us suffer our own choices, to guide us on our own particular journeys.

New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.

Writing is not some quiet, closet act.

I think it's important for people to realize that we were all young, all naive, and also we had lived in a time that had magic.

A lot of children don't have a developed aesthetic. I did. I made early choices in life, even about cloth; I liked flannel and not polyester.

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

I don't think," he insisted. "I feel.