“If there’s one thing that unites us in New York City, its not love.

Its not loyalty or intelligence or pride. Its not even money. The particular type of thread I’m thinking of falls closer to envy. It runs through us like thread through a needle. Everything we do is stitched in its color.

There’s this thing we do when we walk down the street. We look in the windows of other people’s apartments. We don’t do it in a creepy, stalker way. It’s nothing like that at all. We so it more in a curious, maybe even competitive way, although that’s not to say its in a negative way either. In this city were always looking over each other’s shoulders. There’s always a hotter person we could be going out with. There’s a cooler job just around the corner. Of course, someone else’s apartment is always better than our own, the grass is always greener on the other side of he fence, but we don’t have green grass here, and we don’t have fences. What we have are fishbowl-type windows that we look into so we can judge your life. Is it better? Is it worse? Our competitive streak is closely linked to our drive to do better, its what gets us out f bed in the morning. Its what gets us to wait in line at sample sales in the pouring rain or to the gallery opening we have to attend. We’re a greedy bunch  when it comes to our time and our goals. A materialistic bunch, too, but also a determined one. Basically we all just want cool stiff. And want it now.”—-Lesley Arfin