“New York is at once cosmopolitan and parochial, a compendium of sentimental certainties. It is in fact the most sentimental of the world's great cities - in its self-congratulation a kind of San Francisco of the East”

“Writing is a manual labor of the mind: a job, like laying pipe.”

“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”

“I think of New York City lost in starsforgotten as a blue haired pet of childhood love Tonight the night is full;”

“New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition is murderous. But there is one thing about it - once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.”

“When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.”

“Have you ever really wanted to be able to do something, but you came across a roadblock of some kind?You have a difficult choice. I made that choice once and it changed my whole life, by giving me experiences I never would have had if I took the easy street and had not tried.”