Adam Gopnik

The coffee shop is a great New York institution, but it has terrible coffee. And the more traditional coffee shops are trying to catch up with more sophisticated coffee drinkers.

I rush to add that I find the Web infinitely useful for rustling up information, settling arguments or locating the legends of rock stars.

In bookstores, my stuff is usually filed in the out-of-the-way, additional interest sections.

I cannot cook to save my life. I'm really frighteningly useless, when you get down to it.

Astaire never thought of what he was doing as balletic, but Kelly was always trying to dance with women on points. And his choreography is so showy and flashy. He always looks self-satisfied to me.

I romanticized domesticity for a while, and loved having a shopping list of groceries stuck to the fridge for the first time.