“New York is a granite beehive, where people jostle and whir like molecules in an overheated jar. Houston is six suburbs in search of a center.”

“He loves New York, he says. 'It's like Oberlin--it's where people who don't belong anywhere belong.”

“We were talking about The Bell Jar, because we were sixteen, and we wanted to be depressed in New York.”

“My advice for aspiring writers is go to New York. And if you can’t go to New York, go to the place that represents New York to you, where the standards for writing are high, there are other people who share your dreams, and where you can talk, talk, talk about your interests. Writing books begins in talking about it, like most human projects, and in being close to those who have already done what you propose to do.”

“Skill is successfully walking a tightrope between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Intelligence is not trying.”

“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”