Quote

I moved from a mountain with one traffic light to New York City when I was 17, and it was an amazing, eye opening, creative adventure. I would walk through the streets of Manhattan looking up at these huge buildings, amazed that I didn't know a single person in any of them.

I remember passing through New York in college and thinking, 'I'm going to come back here.' The energy just made me think of Europe - everyone walking, seeing the delis and flowers outside. It just felt very familiar. I loved it right away.

When I came for the first time to the United States, visiting, I was absolutely fascinated by New York.

I loved experiencing city life in New York.

I wanted to experience New York, to look up and see buildings.

We would go in there with our parents once in a while for - actually go into Manhattan for dinner, weekends occasionally to a museum, but most of my memories of traveling into Manhattan was with the school trips and then later on as we got, you know, into high school, kind of on our own and with friends.

You've never seen Manhattan 'til you've flown right up the East River. It's beautiful.

I try to remember what it was like to be a kid in New York. I lived in different parts of my childhood in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, where 'When You Reach Me' is set, and also in the Midwood section of Brooklyn.

I wanted to travel from the beginning. As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes, before I ever flew in one.