Sublime

East Tremont may have been a loud community, a shrill community, a materialistic, money-conscious community. But it was a community.

I had visited New York many times over the years but living here, as I soon discovered, is a whole different ballgame.

New York was a city in which public office was, increasingly, a means to private profit.

And to the amazement of reporters who had smiled skeptically at the time, La Guardia kept his promise, slashing thousands of nonessential jobs from city payrolls, slashing the salaries of the employees who remained, balancing the city’s budget—and raising the moral tone of government in New York to new heights.

“The Thomas Crown Affair,”

À Paris, la cohue de la capitale, la course perpétuelle ou encore les amours inutiles permettaient de couvrir tout bruissement. Bien sûr, il restait les heures creuses de la nuit pour le ressusciter, et il arrivait à Émile de se faire surprendre parfois par une pensée ou un souvenir. Le temps d’écrire à nouveau.

New York swelled with the loud optimism of those who believe they have outpaced the future.

The whole notion of disruption is adolescent: It assumes that after the teenagers make a mess, the adults will come and clean it up. But there are no adults. We own this mess.