“the illusion of N.Y is wearing off. Once you get behind or inside the buildings, the externals, the minds are terrible, the newspapers, the movies, the conversations, the mentality, the parties, the wisecracks - i can’t tell you how ugly, or how brutal, or how imbecilic. Loathsome. there is so much of it, i believe one could not find or be one self here without a strong preparation, having lived in paris first, i would say, to create this integrity, and then one may live here with what one has amassed. but creating the self here is herculean, and i see why i ran away, why you ran away, and stayed away. one has to be terribly whole to stand it, to be indifferent, to nourish ones self and live only with a few people.”

-Anaïs Nin