My capacity for having a good time exists. It surfaces, however, on odd occasions.

There follows a little obscenity here, a dash of philosophy there, considerable whining overall, and a modern satirical novel is born.

That 'writers write' is meant to be self-evident. People like to say it. I find it is hardly ever true. Writers drink. Writers rant. Writers phone. Writers sleep. I have met very few writers who write at all.

People have been modeling their lives after films for years, but the medium is somehow unsuited to moral lessons, cautionary tales or polemics of any kind.

Being neurotic seemed to be a kind of wild card, an all-purpose explanation.

Things have changed very much, several times, since I grew up, and, like everyone in New York except the intellectuals, I have led several lives and I still lead some of them.

the time for prizes and competitions at art festivals is over. Competition is too closely tied to values that are alien to the arts.