It was three years ago that he told me that, and we have lived in Los Angeles since. Many of the people we knew in New York think this is a curious aberration, and in fact tell us so. There is no possible, no adequate answer to that, and so we give certain stock answers, the answers everyone gives. I talk about how difficult it would be for us to "afford" to live in New York right now, about how much "space" we need. All I mean is that I was very young in New York, and that at some point the golden rhythm was broken, and I am not that young any more. --Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That"