So why did poor artists originally hang around in cafes?””I don’t know. Inspiration from the atmosphere.””Ha! No, you’ve been tricked, too, just like the rest of us. Cafes didn’t have inspirational atmosphere at first. That...

The truth is, anyone who puts so much of herself and her life into art as you do must naturally fear any failure in that art as a potential threat to your life. And so...

But no, music lasted longer than anything it inspired. After LPs, cassettes, and CDs, when matrimony was about to decay into its component elements—alimony and acrimony—the songs startled him and regained all their previous, pre-Rachel...

You deicde, and you make our night what you want. Brilliant and ours. Stupid and theirs.

Maria, groaning for scraps, would drape his head on my feet as I ate, trying to camouflage himself as my napkin or the rug.

He fell in love with Manhattan’s skyline, like a first-time brothel guest falling for a seasoned professional. He mused over her reflections in the black East River at dusk, dawn, or darkest night, and each...