I live in Soho in lower New York; there's tons and tons of tourists right outside my door step, obviously. Most of them are European, and all of them have guidebooks. I never see anyone looking at a phone.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Some people go to L.A. just to see recognizable people. There are tour buses. But in New York, everyone seems a little less into that.
I do a lot of eavesdropping. That's one of the things I miss about New York: just checking people out.
It's usually a jolly good trick to pick up a local tour guide. They can tell you all the anecdotes that make a place interesting. I'm one for rushing off to museums at the crack of dawn, eating fabulous things on terraces for lunch, and enjoying long dinners on balmy evenings.
Have I got a black book? Yes, it's called a mobile phone. I do get offers. There is no shortage of people if you want to go on dates - working in TV, living in L.A., it is there if you want it.
I'm the person friends come to when they want to find the perfect restaurant or boutique hotel on the outskirts of Paris. As opposed to scouring the Internet for a travel guide, wouldn't you rather ask the people who are really cool who go there? That's what I do.
I rarely have out-of-town visitors because you have to do things like take them around L.A.
I get invited to do panels with other Brooklyn writers to discuss what it's like to be a writer in Brooklyn. I expect it's like writing in Manhattan, but there aren't as many tourists walking very slowly in front of you when you step out for coffee. It's like writing in Paris, but there are fewer people speaking French.
In L.A., my house is surrounded by churches, and there are no cars, so it's really nice to just walk around before I go home to check my emails from Spain, which have been coming in all night.
I live in England, so I take a lot of trains, and you can't really go anywhere without somebody talking on their mobile phone behind you, forcing you to listen to their conversation. With the Internet, with texting, with networking sites, there's already information everywhere.
I walk out my front door in New York and I'm out on the street and there are people everywhere. L.A. is so much more spread out, so it's really easy in L.A. to have a little more isolation and to just not see as many people.