“I know I said I had no other practical skills, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as good at anything as I was at selling clothes. Or enjoy anything as much. I was in my element. I would recommend it to any writer. Not just because of the number of people you get to meet, but because it forces you out of your shell. Because writing is so inherently solitary, it is nice to balance it with a job that involves some other socialization.”

“I always felt like material success meant that you had one of those guys who meet you at the airport with a sign with your name on it. To not have to think about getting anywhere after a flight seemed to me the height of luxury. Being able to abdicate responsibility like that seems the height of luxury.”

“In New York everything is so strange. You can’t think in normal terms. If you think, One day I’d like to have a baby, then you immediately think, How can I live in an apartment that would accommodate a child? If we talk about getting married, we don’t know where we could afford to do a reception in the city. It would be nice to have those things not be a source of anxiety one day.”

“Be kind to everyone. Not because people can help you but because…it will pay dividends. It is the way you will have wanted to live your life in a couple of years and in a few more years even more so, I am sure. And, on a practical level, this is a small city and a small business and a small world. You see a lot of people being unkind for a cheap laugh or for a few page views. And it’s not a way to live your life.”

Sadie Stein, Deputy Editor at The Paris Review, on her days as a young unknown writer living between Paris and New York.