“Being raised Catholic in a pressure-cooker household besieged by alcohol and bill collectors enforced and heightened a sense of sentry duty in me, the oldest of five children and the one most responsible for keeping everything from capsizing. Wild indulgence was for other people, the non-worriers.” PeopleChildrenFiveDutyPressureResponsibleCatholicBillsRaisedAlcoholHouseholdIndulgenceCollectorsCookers Author:James Wolcott
“I understand the people-watching, but I've never done it where people have to race to three different shows, from here to there. I mean, the biggest zoo I ever faced was Comic Con, and Comic Con takes place in one big hangar.” PeopleMeanDifferentDoneShowsBigsThreeRaceComicZoosComic Con Author:James Wolcott
“I remember reading about police arresting this filmmaker making this freaky movie and his name was John Waters. And I was like, wow, someone in Baltimore is doing something creative? I didn't know there were people running off and making eight-millimeter movies. Then I got to New York and realized, oh, there's a whole world of people who do these things. I was utterly bored being in the suburbs, but I didn't know why I was bored.” PeopleWorldRunningRememberReadingWaterCreativePoliceBoredFilmmakerFreaky Author:James Wolcott
“I think ambition is a desire for recognition. People want to be special. I think ambition can take in a whole package of things, power or sexual excitement.” PeopleThinkingDesireSpecialAmbitionRecognitionExcitement Author:James Wolcott
“People want somebody to be a daredevil, even if they're not going to be a daredevil themselves.” People Author:James Wolcott
“The Internet and blogging made writing somewhat more solitary and more splintered. It removes the whole sense of the magazine as an organism. A certain dynamism. At The Village Voice, there were all these fevers inside the offices, that would break out into full-scale rumbles between writers. The New Yorker used to be notorious for everything that went on, sexual intrigues and people had individual offices, they could close the door and take a bottle out of their bottom drawer or have sex on their desk.” PeopleWritingIndividualBreakInternetOfficeBottomSolitaryNotorious Author:James Wolcott
“I understand that one of the purposes of bipartisanship is to cram something difficult and necessary down the American people's gullets for which neither party has the fortitude to assume full responsibility. It's a way of turning a possible gangplank into a teeter-totter.” PeopleWayPurposeDifficultPartyResponsibilityAssumingFortitudeBipartisanship Author:James Wolcott
“People want to be special. I think ambition can take in a whole package of things, power or sexual excitement.” PeopleThinkingWantWholeSpecialAmbitionExcitementPackages Author:James Wolcott
