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.

Cooking is the showy side of domesticity.

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

The argument about zoning and the presidency of Nigeria is like the philosophical argument of the egg or the hen. Who is older through the evolutionary process, who came first?

It took me realizing that a broken heart has never actually killed anyone to find the courage to ask for what I want, in just about every situation. That was part of my own growing up.

If I can add, say, 10 great new violin concertos to the repertoire before I'm done, that will be truly exciting.