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Here they are, in his own words.
The first time I came to New York was 1988.
I was doing the first movie I ever made in America, a horror movie calledWarlock.
It felt like landing in Oz.
I felt like Id been literally plugged in, both fingers and toes, into an electric current.
I had an idea that New York was just about the most fantastically decadent place on the planet.
But it wasnt quite that when I finally got here in 1988.
I was much older.The first place I stayed was the Algonquin Hotel.
I was absolutely astonished how disgusting the food was.
But it was such an institution, and Id seen it in so many Woody Allen movies.
She was so friendly to the Altmans, and therefore by proxy, me.
And its Italian food.
Whats not to like?
Its not cutting-edge, and the food is not fucked about with.
Theres no foam or steam, or test-tube stuff at anybodys table.
I just walked past there yesterday, and I saw that its now no longer.
I thought,Oh my God.
And there were a lot of X-rated movie places.
None of that exists now.
Then when I was onGirls, Lena Dunham kept telling me about Williamsburg.
In London its moved to East London, or east of East.
And as Ive got older, Ive gone further west and west.
Thats how it works.
The pendulum has swung.
The Meatpacking DistrictIn 1991, I went to visit Sandra Bernhard, who Id just worked with onHudson Hawk.
She lived in the Meatpacking District, and I saw men on street corners, which so shocked me.
We filmed at the Chelsea Hotel a month before it was turned into luxury apartments.
There was a real sense of subterfuge.
Theres nothing for me like the smell and the atmosphere of bookstores.
Especially ones that have been there for a long time.
All that stuff that you dont regularly find.
I love going to that bookstore.
The subwayI had seenTaxi Driver, and Id seenFrench Connection.
I thought I was probably gonna be murdered on any street corner.
Even in 1988 the subway was a hairier kind of experience.
Id go down there thinking,Will I get mugged?But I love using public transport.
I do it in London every single day.
I thought that was unequivocal.
Either youre doing it, or youre not doing it.
Youre either a success on Broadway, or youre closed and youre a flop.
Now its the hand, you dont get WALK or DONT WALK.
I miss seeing that, because it seemed so quintessentially New York in attitude.
