“In a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you.”

“In a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you.”

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

“I never trust frank and simple people whose stories hold together.”

“Why shouldn’t I? I demand silently. Why shouldn’t I become a famous writer? Like Norman Mailer. Or Philip Roth. And F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemmingway and all those other men. Why can’t I be like them? I mean, what is the point of becoming a writer if no one reads what you’ve written?Damn Viktor Greene and The New School. Why do I have to keep proving myself all of the time? Why can’t I be like L’il, with everyone praising and encouraging me? Or Rainbow, with her sense of entitlement. I bet Viktor Greene never asked Rainbow why she wanted to be a writer.Or what if-I wince-Viktor Greene is right? I’m not a writer after all.”