A story of "a very imperfect life lived among very imperfect houses," written in homage to the yearnings that have fueled her lifelong game of house. More
"I've always been somebody who exerts a great deal of energy trying to get my realities to match my fantasies, even if the fantasies are made from materials that are no longer manufactured, even if some governmental agency has assessed my aspirations and pronounced them a health hazard. Lately, my New York fantasy has proven a little too retro for my own good. Though I did come to New York immediately after college and lived, believe it or not, within four blocks of 104th Street and West End Avenue, it wasn't until recently that I began to realize that I wasn't having quite as good a time here as I once did. I say this as someone who has had a very, very good time in New York. I say this also as someone who has enjoyed a good deal of professional success here, particularly considering that I am young and committed to a field that is notoriously low paying and unsteady. But low pay and unsteadiness never really bothered me all that much. I've historically been pretty good at getting by on what I have, especially if you apply the increasingly common definition of "getting by," which has more to do with keeping up appearances than keeping things under control. Like a social smoker whose supposedly endearing desire to emulate Marlene Dietrich has landed her in a cancer ward, I have recently woken up to the frightening fallout of my own romantic notions of life in the big city: I am completely over my head in debt. I have not made a life for myself in New York City. I have purchased a life for myself."
— Meghan Daum, My Misspent Youth
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"Read. Always read. No one can take that away from you."... More
"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein... More
"The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." — F... More
"There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them.... More
"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn... More
"Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television." —Woody Allen... More
