When all else fails, give up and go to the library.

Anywhere in New York, anywhere in the country, somewhere there's going to be a Coke sign. People identify with Coke. You can write a novel about New York and people from the country will read it if they feel that you've made them familiar with New York.

Teaching school is like having jumper cables hooked to your brain, draining all the juice out of you.

All I can say is what you already know: some days are treasure. Not many, but I think in almost every life there are a few. That was one of mine, and when I'm blue -- when life comes down on me and everything looks tawdry and cheap, the way Joyland Avenue did on a rainy day -- I go back to it, if only to remind myself that life isn't always a butcher's game. Sometimes the prizes are real. Sometimes they are precious.

Mrs. Cole was a perfect democrat. She hated all kids equally.

Sometimes the things presented to us as choices aren't choices at all.

Love isn't soft, like the poets say. Love has teeth which bite and the wounds never close.