My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.

Mass transportation is doomed to failure in North America because a person's car is the only place where he can be alone and think.

I like the guitar better these days. I like the bass, too, but it's hard to fit a bass amp in a small car.

I want to let my friend Buster know that I would like to have dinner with him tonight. Does Buster work at home? Then how likely is he to have his cell phone on? Is he one of those people who only turns on his cell when he's in his car? I hate that.