Mistake

"People who move to New York always make the same mistake. They can't see the place. This is true of Manhattan, but even the outer boroughs, too, be it Flushing Meadows in Queens or Red Hook in Brooklyn. They come looking for magic, whether evil or good, and nothing will convince them it isn't here."
Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom

Parallel Worlds

Bernard Baruch Way

"In New York there was no courtesy, only parallel worlds. We worked hard at ignoring each other."
Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic

New York Rubes

"You can fool yourself if you're raised in New York. Think that somehow your birthplace alone makes you cosmopolitan. But it isn't true. We're rubes too. For us a trip to Scarsdale is a safari."
Victor Lavalle, Big Machine