The purpose of rock n' roll is to convince girls to pay money to get close to you.

we still have the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building and the Woolworth Building, but it just seems like part of the nature of New York, that it's always shifting.

Things always change, and New York teaches you that.

Another thing that's good about writing to describe a situation or a state of consciousness is that you can finally get it right. That was my intention, and that's always interesting.

In fact I thought life was pretty much a losing proposition, and I didn't mind saying so.

I'm usually alone or asleep, at home.

I do everything halfway, a thing of which adults disapprove, but things done halfway are deceptive, and in a class of their own – for instance, the sun is really twice its size.

A memoir takes some particular threads, some incidents, some experience from a person's life and gives an account of it.

I shake my head and the tiny acrobats fall like spangles, like the cool rain on another planet, down to the inside of my feet.

I felt just overwhelmed by input: the Vietnam War and the collapse of the '60s and the proliferation of media' it just felt like everything was too much to handle and you just tuned out.

A memoir is a book about some particular thread or theme or moment in a person's life, whereas an autobiography is the entire life.

Sometimes when you least expect it, the tables turn and that scary feeling that has taken hold of you for so long somehow turns into hope

If you don't feel the same way about him, if you're just leading him on, you need to tell him that. I've seen too many nice guys get shafted because a girl can't get over some jerk.

When we are aware of our inner-growth potential yet have no pretensions about ourselves, when we are vulnerable, then we can change.

Little girls love dolls. They just don't love doll clothes. We've got four thousand dolls and ain't one of them got a stitch of clothes on.

Some people burn all of their energy helping themselves, while some use all of it helping others. The happiest among us do a little of both.

There are a million reasons why you can't. Focus on the few reasons why you can.

The saying, "Those that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it" doesn't just apply to politicians and world leaders, it applies to all of us on a daily basis.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.

Philadelphia, wonderful town, spent a week there one night

The shortest path to exceeding expectations doesn't generally pass through meeting expectations.