Katherine Dunn Quotes

In New York, the street adventures are incredible. There are a thousand stories in a single block. You see the stories in the people's faces. You hear the songs immediately. Here in Los Angeles, there are less characters because they're all inside automobiles.

I seem to only write New York stories because it's the only thing that inspires or interests me.

Growing up so close to New York City, I always loved going to the city, but I'd be disappointed because songs about New York always made it seem so magical and perfect, and when I was younger, I just thought it was busy and dirty.

London has always provided the landscape for my imagination. It becomes a character - a living being - within each of my books.

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.

There are so many lovely cities around the U.S., around the world, that it's almost impossible to pick one.

All that a city will ever allow you is an angle on it, an oblique, indirect sample of what it contains, or what passes through it; a point of view.

I consider myself Istanbul's storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city's clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love.

I love, love writing about Los Angeles. I love exploring every part of it. And I find, rather than a burden, it's actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process for me. I love everything about L.A. Okay, not the traffic. But I love the way it looks. I love the geography. I love the diversity.

Even in New York, there are a lot of very attractive girls pedaling around. That just happens to be one of the nice sights in our city, seeing a young woman on a bike.

I wanted to experience New York, to look up and see buildings.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

I love driving in the city at night.

There's a ton of stories that can come out of L.A. I actually think that even though I enjoy being in New York more, I think that L.A. is a really fascinating place.

I always found very strong images for my songwriting in New York.

I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.

I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth.

'Ghost City' began as a idea. I felt that I hadn't read or heard a great deal about the sort of life that I thought I had, and I just thought that it would be interesting to sit down and see if I could put it down onto paper.

As a 13-year-old fan of horror fiction, I hadn't seen too many cities in the literature I loved. It was always small towns, or backwoods locales, or maybe the suburbs.

Good and bad make up a city.

Heaven is not built of country seats / But little queer suburban streets;, .d. cities;, .d. heaven;, Heaven is not built of country seats But little queer suburban streets.

There are so many memories for me in Manchester. Everywhere I go, I think, 'I used to have boutiques here, clubs there, restaurants in that area.'

People-watching in New York while listening to Bach is kind of amazing.

Apparently, the city of Delhi is a 'character' in my novels. I'd argue that it's a ... city... in my novels.