Lucy Sante is a Belgian-born American writer and critic who has written for the New York Review of Books for four decades about film, art and photography. Her books include Evidence, a haunting study of suicide and homicide victims, and Low Life, a portrait of early 20th-century tricksters and scammers, which led Martin Scorsese to hire her as a historical consultant for his 2002 film Gangs of New York.
You came of age as a writer in New York at a hugely vibrant and diverse time.
We didn’t have the internet but we had this vibrant street culture with people making music and movies, putting on plays and exhibitions, so you would run into interesting people all the time. Nan Goldin [the photographer and campaigner] was a bartender in this bar we all favoured in Times Square where all the bartenders were female artists. And when I first met [the artist] Jean-Michel Basquiat, he was homeless, living on NYU dorm floors before some of my friends took him in. I loved that it was possible to rent an apartment, buy groceries, the occasional record or piece of clothing, go to the theatre – all on a beginner’s salary working in the mailroom at the NYRB.
