Because that is what such a city is, in the New World, a writer's heaven.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I'm not sure it's the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.
Living in New York City is one constant, ongoing literary pilgrimage. For 20 years, I lived among the ghosts of great writers and walked where they had walked.
New York was the Promised Land growing up. Writers were gods! The great gods of American culture... I thought.
Because there are a lot of big cities in the world, people who live in cities have become more isolated than ever.
We say we want to create beauty, identity, quality, singularity. And yet, maybe in truth these cities that we have are desired. Maybe their very characterlessness provides the best context for living.
There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.
I grew up in New York and have lived here all my life. I think it's the best city in the world and can write about it with gusto and fervor and passion.
Country people give me more than writers, and country places than towns.
Where a city is only focused on one aspect, it becomes a city without a soul, not a city people want to live in.
My idea of heaven is not writing.