Brandon Stanton's Blog, page 501

"What was the happiest moment of your life?""My boyfriend and I...

"What was the happiest moment of your life?"
"My boyfriend and I ate Chinese food in the bathtub last week. That was pretty nice."

"I’d like to be a writer.""What do you write?""I mainly...

"I’d like to be a writer."
"What do you write?"
"I mainly just write in my journal. I like to take snippets of conversation that I pick up on the street from different people, and piece them together into one conversation. You never do that?”
"I don’t think so. How do you mean?"
"I don’t know… whenever I hear people talking passionately on the phone, it tends to be about the same things— relationships, money, things that they value. So it’s easy to take pieces of each conversation and put them into a single narrative. It’s just like when you watch sitcoms. You tend to notice the same scenes acted out over and over, just with different actors."

"I just finished my dissertation."“What was the...

"I just finished my dissertation."

“What was the topic?”

“It was about the prediction of community college retention rates.”

“What interests you most about community college?”

“Well, a lot of things. But I really think that the community college system is critical to the functioning of our democracy. A democracy depends on the education of its citizenry. And we just don’t have the infrastructure to send everyone to a four year school. So if America’s democracy is going to succeed, it’s going to depend in large part on the health of our community colleges.”

"I want to be an architect." “In thirty years, if there...

"I want to be an architect."

“In thirty years, if there is a newspaper article about you, what will it say?”

“It will say that I underachieved.”

“Underachieved? Why’s that?”

“Because I can do all the work, make the right grades, and get all the right degrees. But once I’m off on my own, I won’t be the guy pushing for new clients. I do really good work, but only when I’m working within a structure.”

“Everyone is like that. You just have to practice discipline and routine so that you can create your own structure.”

"What was the happiest moment of your life?" "Probably when I...

"What was the happiest moment of your life?" "

Probably when I saw my husband for the first time.”

“Did you know he was going to be your husband?”

“I did.”

“How’s that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. He was just so exciting.”

“What’s the most exciting thing he ever did?”

“Oh, I don’t know. One day when we were working in the garden, he got down on one knee and proposed to me. At that point, we’d already been married for 35 years.”

"What was the saddest moment of your life?"“When my...

"What was the saddest moment of your life?"

“When my father died.”

“What happened?”

“He committed suicide when I was nineteen.”

“Did he leave a note?”

“No. But he was a contractor, and his business was going under, so he was facing bankruptcy. I honestly think that he thought we’d be better off if he wasn’t around.”

“What was the greatest day you ever spent with your father?”

“Well, he was my soccer coach. I’ll always remember driving to practice in his Fiat, with all the soccer balls in the back seat, singing along to Tom Petty… what was that song?”

“Freefalling?”

“Freefalling.”

"I used to play tennis with Arthur Ashe." “Really?...

"I used to play tennis with Arthur Ashe."

“Really? How’d that come about?”

“I was an architect, and my office used to be off Columbus Circle. I lived on the Upper West Side, and every day I’d walk home through the park. One day— this was in 1967— I decided to take a different path, and I heard the sound of bouncing tennis balls. I investigated, and discovered a man “warming up” on a tennis court. He noticed me watching through the fence, and asked if I knew how to play. He told me that he had a foursome scheduled, but his partner had backed out. He only introduced himself as “Artie,” but at this point I knew who he was, so I ran all the way home and grabbed my racket. I’d played tennis since the age of six, so I was very good myself, and we ended up winning the match. At the end, Arthur said: ‘Would you mind if I called you again?’”

"Julia Child would have been 101 last week. I celebrate her...

"Julia Child would have been 101 last week. I celebrate her birthday every year. This year I cooked some smoky eggplant soup, and ate it in Central Park."
"Were you alone?"
"Of course. I love to be alone. I’m fabulous."

"If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of...

"If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?"
"Get along with each other."
"Who do you have the most difficult time getting along with?"
"Probably my daughter."
"Why’s that?"
"She’s just in her ‘me’ phase right now. She’s got all these things she’s off doing all the time. If I called her right now and asked her to come sit in the park with me, she’d think that was crazy. She’d say: ‘Just sit there? You’re nuts.’”
"What was the best day you ever spent with your daughter?"
"One day she called me up and asked if she could come over. And that was really nice. When your kids grow up, you’re always bothering them to spend time with you. So when she called and asked me if she could spend time with me, I thought that was really nice."

"If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of...

"If you could give one piece of advice to a large group of people, what would it be?"

“Keep on rockin’ and rollin’.”

“What was your greatest moment of rock and roll glory?”

“Probably my 19th birthday back in 87’, when I played in front of 5000 people with my band Attitude Adjustment. We were in Germany. Lots of drugs. Lots of alcohol.”

“What was the lowest moment of your rock and roll career?”

“Probably a year later when I was homeless.”