In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so.

You're always thinking, "What does that add up to?" You can't really get a handle on it. I was curious. I felt like it would be an interesting challenge for me to write down what I'd seen and done and learned - all the convolutions captured in one item that I could look at and get some grip on what the hell happened.

I like writing non-fiction - and when you pick a [non-fiction] subject, it saves you the hassle of coming up with a plot.

Nothing lasts in New York. Everything's always changing in really obvious ways.

I felt just overwhelmed by input: the Vietnam War and the collapse of the '60s and the proliferation of media' it just felt like everything was too much to handle and you just tuned out.

I'm someone who's really susceptible to tears.

A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.