Iron Dragon

"There, gaping before us, were the jaws of the iron dragon: the immense New York metropolis."
Bernardo Vega, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega

Outer Life

"To live in New York is to be involved with the outer or communal life of the city in all its detail, to be in the face of everyone else looking at you (but giving you license to be eccentric), particular people doing particular things, amid detail of objects, architecture, weather. Everyone is interested in everything."
Alice Notley, Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions

Tempo

"Your mother has always wondered why I live in New York. I live here because of the tempo and the fast track, because there are always so many more choices. I live here because it ruins you for any other place. You'll see."
Jean Bach, The New Yorker