One important thing you can learn in Manhattan is this: if you're cranky and young, you're just a nasty bitch. But if you're cranky and old, you're a fun eccentric, and you should be interviewed in the NYT magazine. Take Sunday's Q&A with kooky recluse artist Robert Rauschenberg:

Q. Aren't you having another show now at Yale?
A. Yes. I am not happy with it. It was organized by the gay studies department, whatever that is. It's not an approach that makes sense. I refused to give them permission to reproduce the works in a catalog.
Q. Now that you're 78, do you find yourself brooding on death?
A. No. Not at all. I am too old for that. There once was a rich and crazy woman who was sitting nervously at a dinner party of mine next to John Cage. And she was just terrified because she couldn't figure out anything to open a conversation with him. So she said, ''What do you think about death?'' He looked right at her and said, ''I can't wait!'' She didn't have a second thing set up to say.
Q. Are dinner parties as good as they used to be in the bohemian 50's?
A. Of course not.

Growing Old, Artfully [NYT Mag]