Commitment

"New York is not an escape: it's a commitment, a war. It makes you feel like acting, facing things, changing them. You like it in the way that you like things, say, when you are twenty."

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Pier Paolo Pasolini

The End of the World

Canal Street subway station

"I spend a lot of time thinking about how I will almost definitely be the first one to die in the apocalypse.  It's kinda hard not to think about the end of the world when you live in New York City, considering there's already a very fine line between order and chaos here, and all it really takes to send us into primitive panic is a delayed subway train, an inch of snow, or a giant ball of glitter falling in Times Square on New Year's Eve."
Matt Bellassai, Everything is Awful

New York on the Brain

"The most visible and peculiar trait of New York folks," answered Bud, "is New York. Most of 'em has New York on the brain. They have heard of other places, such as Waco, and Paris, and Hot Springs, and London; but they don't believe in 'em."
O. Henry, Delphi Complete Works of O. Henry