The Sun Also Sets

This is the view from my window in Queens. A room with a view is essential. When I lived in New York during my tender twenties, I always looked skyward or headed into the park to spend time with trees.

One of the greatest things about Queens, in addition to its reputation as being unhip, is the flat expanse. Perhaps it is because I have lived in Los Angeles for so many years, but I like a good sprawl loaded with plants.

Every evening, if I am lucky enough to be home, I sit in front of my window and watch the sunset over Manhattan. I look across five miles of trees that obscure most of the man made things. Then, there is the foggy rise of the vapor off the East River and after that, Gotham in all its sharpness.

I love Manhattan. What a marketplace. And furthermore, it has Central Park.

But what I cannot get over is how much my small apartment feels like a cabin in the sky because of all this light and these trees and the sunset.

I am a radical sunset chaser. At dinner parties, I beg people to come outside with me when the sun is setting. (I also love the early morning light, but I am so rarely awake for it.)

Living on the fourth, fifth or sixth floors of a building is clearly the way to go. You want branches.

And a view is so important. You can just sit there and think...

I did lift one of the screens and it fell down four stories. I went down and retrieved it.