It's hard to think of such things when you are busy dreaming or loving or screwing. The context falls away.

New Yorkers love the bigness -- the skyscrapers, the freedom, the lights. But they also love it when they can carve out some smallness for themselves. When the guy at the corner store knows which newspaper you want. When the barista has your order ready before you open your mouth. When you start to recognize the people in your orbit, and you know that, say, if you're waiting for the subway at eight fifteen on the dot, odds are the redhead with the red umbrella is going to be there too.

Some people are given relatively fair lives. But others-they carry the burden of the unfairness of the world.

When you need to hold onto something, you should. Whatever gets you through, take it.