“Harlem was an exciting place in the '50s. There were nightclubs that, ...” — David Levering Lewis Quote

“Harlem was an exciting place in the '50s. There were nightclubs that, as a student of Columbia, you dashed off to. The community seemed very viable still.”

“In 1900, as the immigrants come down the gangplank into Jersey City, they expect the streets to be paved with gold, and they were only paved with gold in Frank Baum's 'The Wizard of Oz,' of course.”

“Harlem was the main chance for the east end of New York, for eastsiders, as that real estate boom that took place in the 1890s - and it was a preposterous one where people bought and sold, and everything appreciated with each sale - and eventually, of course, the house of cards would crumble.”

“I teach a course in screenwriting at Columbia, but I've never taken a course and I've never read a book about it!”

“When I was 13, I used to go to a jazz club. The owner of the club became my first business manager. She was very gutsy and had a lot of friends, one of whom happened to be the head of jazz at Columbia at the time. That's how it all began.”

“When I was 17, I came to the U.S. to study Middle Eastern history and politics at Columbia University.”