Writing Is The Hardest Work

The Goal Is To Be Both Disciplined And Loose, So That The Writing Does Not Turn Into A Task Or A Chore. To Leave Myself Behind, Along With The Mechanics, And Disappear Into The Lives Of My Characters.

There Are 10,000 Books In My Library, And It Will Keep Growing Until I Die. This Has Exasperated My Daughters, Amused My Friends And Baffled My Accountant. If I Had Not Picked Up This Habit In The Library Long Ago, I Would Have More Money In The Bank Today; I Would Not Be Richer.

They All Laughed. I Drew Their Pictures And They Asked For Copies And I Handed Them Out As If They Were My Tickets To The Show. In The Navy Yard, I Could Drink With Men Because I Worked With Men; In The Parkview, I Could Drink With Men Because I Drew Their Pictures. The World Was A Grand Confusion. Finally, When I Was Bleary, When My Hand Wouldn't Do What I Wanted It To Do, I Went Home. I Would Lie Alone In The Dark, Feeling That I Was A Character In A Story That Had Lost Its Plot.

I Don't Ask For The Meaning Of The Song Of A Bird Or The Rising Of The Sun On A Misty Morning. There They Are, And They Are Beautiful.

In The End, The Only Thing The True New Yorker Knows About New York Is That It Is Unknowable.