In the kind of New England I'm from, you are expected to stay and marry somebody from New England - well, Maine, actually - so I think it was seen as a betrayal when I left for New York, which has been my refuge.

If you get divorced in New York, you go into therapy and will talk to anybody you meet on the sidewalk about it.

He left the self-conscious literary demimonde of New York for the quiet infidelities of New England.

Half these kids are originally from New England or New York.

I'm drawn to New England because that's where my roots are, and I miss it. I come from many generations of New Englanders, and so, in my writing, I've been drawn back there to the landscape and the light and the type of personality that's revealed.

I think everything should be in verse. 'The New York Times' should be in verse.