“Why are all the best places to eat in the worst parts of town”
“Towns [in the Midwest] with immigrants are growing. Towns without immigrants are shrinking. It's as simple as that.”
“This town will eat you up if you’re not careful. But I won’t be here forever.”
“An ugly, lovely town ... crawling, sprawling ... by the side of a long and splendid curving shore. This sea-town was my world.”
“Big-shot town, small-shot town, jet-propelled old-fashioned town, by old-world hands with new-world tools built into a place whose heartbeat carries farther than its shout, whose whispering in the night sounds less hollow than its roistering noontime laugh: they have builded a heavy-shouldered laughter here who went to work too young.”