Quotes from Jay McInerney

He belonged to the new breed of male epicureans who viewed cooking as a competitive sport, and pursued it with the same avidity that others had for fly-fishing or golf, with the attendant fetishization of the associated gadgetry and equipment. He

The corollary to the notion that any rumor is at least half true, is that any half-truth, repeated often enough, becomes entirely true.

they'd followed their best instincts and based their lives on the premise that money couldn't buy happiness, learning only gradually the many varieties of unhappiness it might have staved off. Russell

You are dancing with Elaine. Tad is dancing with Theresa. Elaine moves with an angular syncopation that puts you in mind of the figures on Egyptian tombs. It may be a major new dance step.

Mert tényleg, valahogy olyan durvának érzem, ha az ember nem nyeli le. Mint amikor meghívsz valakit a házadba vacsorára, és aztán a konyhában kell ennie a cselédekkel.

And as he feels himself falling asleep he has an insight he believes is important, which he hopes he will remember in the morning, although it is one of those thoughts that seldom survive translation to the language of daylight hours

Under the spell of alcohol your differences recede.

Three months later—a Jewish girl having in the meantime explained the fundamentals of kosher dining—he returned to the B & H Dairy Bar, and when, finally, the old man asked him if he'd ever been in a restaurant, Jeff answered, "I don't know—you ever worked in one?" After that he was a New Yorker. Cruising

The night has already turned on that imperceptible pivot where two a.m. changes to six a.m.

Launching a sustained assault on the citadel of good times.

Tears come to your eyes, and you feel such a rush of tenderness and pity that you stop beside a lamppost and hang on for support.

It's amazing what human beings get accustomed to—how quickly the bizarre, the absurd and the perverse can become routine. People have become accustomed to torture, or so I've read, bonded with their tormentors, the wielders of pliers and electricity. It happens gradually. Maybe one day you get high with another couple and there's a certain amount of joking and talk, and the next thing you know, the guy's making out with your wife and you're kind

Rosania says. "To keep them to myself would be unimaginable. Wine is meant to be shared." It's a refreshing attitude, particularly if you are on the receiving end of it. The night before the auction I personally consumed, by my best estimate, over $20,000 worth of his wine—including the 1945 Mouton and the 1947 Cheval Blanc—and I was one of fourteen drinkers.

This cousin had a girlfriend with cheekbones to break your heart, and you knew she was the real thing when she steadfastly refused to acknowledge your presence. She possessed secrets—about islands, about horses, about French pronunciation—that you would never know.

The problem is, for some reason you think you are going to meet the kind of girl who is not the kind of girl who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. When you meet her you are going to tell her that what you really want is a house in the country with a garden. New York, the club scene, bald women—you're tired of all that. Your presence here is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren't.

You hate Tad Allagash. Go home. Cut your losses. Stay. Go for it. You are a republic of voices tonight.

He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

I don't want to have my life fall apart for my work.

I envy those writers who outline their novels, who know where they're going. But I find writing is a process of discovery.

Most of the people I write about have been ambitious outlanders who have been attracted to New York from other parts of the world.

You know, Greenwich Village was the traditional bohemia of New York. I wish I could say that was entirely true now. It's, uh... changed. It's now got, God help us, investment bankers and journalists, but it's still a very beautiful part of New York.

Sometimes I think the difference between what we want and what we're afraid of is about the width of an eyelash.

Reading a novel is just a much more involving and intimate experience than the act of watching a film. I mean, you literally get inside of a novelist's head, and you invest many hours to do so.