Hurried Friendliness

Fifth Avenue (Pexels)

"That was the nice thing about New York, the wonderful thing — that everybody was busy and everybody let everybody else alone, and still, everybody was friendly and kind in a hurried way and without making much fuss about it or thinking anything of it."
Curt Riess, High Stakes

Capital Assets

"The sun might set over Manhattan as it might set over Mt. Kilimanjaro, over Lake Titicacca, or over the Khyber Pass. But only over Manhattan did it set in reflections of gold for which there were capital assets to match."

Russell Bittner, Trompe-l'oeil

Small Things

"For the first time in Manhattan’s history, it has no bohemian frontier. Another bookstore closes, another theatre becomes a condo, another soulful place becomes a sealed residence. These are small things, but they are the small things that the city’s soul clings to."
Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker