Memory's Mower

"You might say, if you're the type prone to general observations, that New York City insists on memory's repetitive mower—on the sort of purposeful postmortem that has the effect, so one is told and forlornly hopes, of cutting the grassy past to manageable proportions. For it keeps growing back, of course."
Joseph O'Neill, Nederland

Magritte

East 24th

"Sometimes to walk in shaded parts of Manhattan is to be inserted into a Magritte: the street is night while the sky is day."
Joseph O'Neill, Netherland

Real Estate

Door on the Lower East Side

"People in New York are authorized by convention to snoop around and mentally measure and pass comment on any real estate they're invited to step into."
Joseph O'Neill, Netherland