I think it's a Jewish Yale custom. I wasn't aware that other people celebrated Christmas. My wife was very big on Christmas, and I was very big on my wife.

When one person mentors, two lives are changed.

[Calvin Trilllin] is not writing about things that I can criticize. I can call these other people out for what I think they are not doing. There's a big difference.

When I graduated [from Yale], I went back to Larry [Kramer]. But when I go to Yale reunions, there are still people who call me David.

Calvin [Trillin] was much more of a mover and a shaker. That's all I'm saying. I was a "weenie." That was another term back then.

That's why I tried to kill myself when I was a student [in Yale]. I thought I was the only one there.

I'm sorry to keep focusing on the New Yorker, but everybody who was growing up when Calvin [Trillin] and I were growing up wanted to be published in the New Yorker.

I talked to [Larry] Kramer a little bit about it while I was writing 'Remembering Denny' . Denny was one of those people who took a long time to come out.

"Shoe" just meant you were a big jock on campus no matter what field you were in.

[Calvin Trillin] was very "shoe," which means he was a big jock, a big deal.

One thing I learned in sobriety is to stop being judgmental, to always be discerning. When I drive, that will be my bumper sticker.

A plastic surgeon should never tell anybody to age gracefully. Rather his motto should be to make people age youthfully.

The problem in today's world is that people do not believe (lack trust) in goodness.

The most powerful thing is for women not just to be the beneficiaries of the change, but to be agents of it.

Sometimes things just happen in the moment.

I think it makes small difference to the dead, if they are buried in the tokens of luxury. All that is an empty glorification left for those who live.

Write to one person, not a million.

We are all the same. We have the same hopes, fears, strengths, and weaknesses.

I cherish my work and all of my readers.

There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.

If you're always worried about being on your phone, then you really are missing out on everything that's happening in front of you.