“The lights flickered. The bands laid down their instruments and the crowds made quiety for the door.”

“If Broadway was a river running from the top of Manhattan down to the Battery, undulating with traffic and commerce and lights, then the east-west streets were eddies where, leaf-like, one could turn slow circles from the beginning to the ever shall be, world without end.”

“When a mother loses a daughter, she grieves over the future that her daughter will never have, but she can take solace in memories of close-knit days. But when your daughter runs away, it is the fond memories that have been laid to rest; and your daughter's future, alive and well, recedes from you like a wave drawing out to sea.”

“On the morning of Friday, July first, I had a low-paying job at a waning publisher and a dwindling circle of semi-acquaintances. On Friday, July eighth, I had one foot in the door of Condé Nast and the other in the door of the Knickerbocker Club—the professional and social circles that would define the next thirty years of my life.That’s how quickly New York City comes about—like a weather vane—or the head of a cobra. Time tells which.”

“Because when some incident sheds a favorable light on an old and absent friend, that's about as good a gift as chance intends to offer.”

“She could have made a favourable impression on someone if she hadn't acted as though at any moment the city was going to step on her”

“There is is again, that slight stinging sensation of the cheeks. It's our body's light speed response to the world showing us up. And it's one of life's most unpleasant feelings, leaving one to wonder what evolutionary purpose it could possible serve.”