To live in Manhattan is to be persistently amazed at the worlds squirrelled inside one another, the chaotic intricacy with which realms interleave, like those lines of television cable and fresh water and steam heat and whatever else which cohabit in the same intestinal holes that pavement-demolishing workmen periodically wrench open to the daylight and to our passing, disturbed glances. We only pretend to live on something as orderly as a grid.
— Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City.