Andalusia Plains

"New York reveals itself only at a particular height, a particular distance, a particular speed. These are not the height, the distance, or the speed of the pedestrian. The city is strikingly like the great Andalusia plains—monotonous when you pass through on foot, superb and varying when crossed by car."
Jean-Paul Sartre, We Have Only This Life to Live

Most Desired, Least Beloved

"Few feel any huge affection for New York, that most desired but least beloved of cities."
Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140

Jagged Dragon

"The city always seemed alive to me, a great, jagged dragon sitting on its jewels—the unexpected alley garden on the Upper West Side, welcoming you to sit and rest; the homeless man on Madison Avenue who offered critiques of your outfits for five bucks; the brownstone on East Eighty-first street where no one lived, but which could be accessed by the garden door, so you could wander the empty rooms as if you owned the place. "
Kristan Higgins, If You Only Knew