Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Halloween

Third Avenue


"In recent years Halloween, sick of dressing up as Robin to New Year's Eve's Batman, has taken the Most Intolerable New York Holiday crown. Perhaps it’s because this city has such a buffet of flimsily contained id to begin with. There are a whole lot of people living here who don’t need to let loose on Halloween — their psyches are pretty unstructured on an average Tuesday."
Sloane Crosley, The New York Times

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Manhattan Noise

Midtown Manhattan


"The noise of Manhattan hit her like a brick wall, a solid slap in the face. A thick cloud of sound, woven tightly of individual threads—the roar of conversation, the thumping footfalls of the walking throngs, the dull gratings and booms of various construction sites, sirens, helicopter blades, music, the great soft whoosh of the Hudson."
Rachel Heng, Suicide Club

Monday, October 29, 2018

Dreamscape

Jane's Carousel and Manhattan Bridge


"The imagination is well nourished in New York, which to many seems like a city that already has the mythical character of a dreamscape."
Janet Allon, The New York Times

Friday, October 26, 2018

Reason for Being

Financial District


"I had spent much of my childhood in this part of Manhattan (my father ran a moderately sized investment house) and from an early age I'd been struck by the fantastic activity that surrounded the getting and keeping of money. This activity could be alternatively seductive and repellant, but by 1896 it was unarguably New York's strongest reason for being
Caleb Carr, The Alienist

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Energetic

Central Park

"New York is such a fascinating city. It's a city that attracts and welcomes so many characters, but it can also be very cold and unwelcoming sometimes. The city is very vibrant and energetic, but it can quickly spit you out if you're weak and not vibrant."
Andrew Dosunmu, The Village Voice

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Survivor

NYC ferry


"I love New York City
She's lived and died
So many times, yeah!
Life is always tough
On New York City, oh lord
But she is fine, she always survives, yeah!"
Lenny Kravitz, New York City

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Time to Leave New York

Grand Central Terminal


"This is how you know you've lived in New York City for too long. When you casually sweep away a cockroach with the flick of your hand the way a fey king dismisses a court jester from his presence, it's time to leave New York City for a second and realize you shouldn't be so grizzled that it doesn't bother you  that half the cast of A Bug's Life is straight up AirBNB'ing in your cupboards."
Phoebe Robinson, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay

Monday, October 22, 2018

Oasis

Central Park


"Central Park must be one of the only places in Manhattan that doesn't feel like it's owned by anyone or named after anyone or making anyone a profit. It's this oasis of pure existence in a realm of sustenance and maintenance."
David Levithan, Someday

Friday, October 19, 2018

Night is Abolished

Third Avenue


"Night is abolished. . . .We have seen restaurants full at dawn— with people who will be at work four hours later. New York is a town that never halts, never slacks off. Subways and street-cars run up and down all night long, twenty-four hours a day. . . . Everything goes fast. . . .New York is a perpetual thunderstorm."
Paul Morand, Mirror for Gotham


Thursday, October 18, 2018

New York Meanings

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir


"New York is striped with parallel, incommunicable meanings."
Jean-Paul Sartre, quoted in New York and the Literary Imagination

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Magical and Enigmatic

Dumbo


"New York is better than pretty—it's energetic. It's magical and enigmatic and the streets are paved with the footsteps and successes of hundreds of thousands of people who've walked them before me. Made it through some tough shite before me."
Lyla Payne, Living the Dream

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Monday, October 15, 2018

Unspoken Rules

C subway train


"There are so many unspoken rules when you live here, like the way you're never supposed to stop in the middle of the sidewalk or stare dreamily up at tall buildings or pause to read graffiti. No giant folding maps, no fanny packs, no eye contact. No humming songs from Dear Evan Hansen in public. And you're definitely not supposed to take selfies at street corners, even if there's a hot dog stand and a whole line of yellow taxis in the background, which is eerily how you always pictured New York. You're allowed to silently appreciate it, but you have to be cool. From what I can tell, that's the whole point of New York: being cool."
Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, What If It's Us

Friday, October 12, 2018

Sense of Discovery

Dumbo


"New York encourages a sense of discovery—I'm never sure what I'm going to eat next or what it will taste like. It's an awe-inspiring place."
Alain Ducasse, Jetsetter

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Manhattan Living

Park Avenue


"You can basically summarize Manhattan living by the number of doors you have. If you only have one door, the one that leads into your  apartment, that's not ideal, but at least you're not living in Jersey. Two doors, though—the front door and the bathroom door—that's luxury!"
Hank Green, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Energy

Midtown Manhattan


"Being in New York takes so much energy as to leave none for any other kind of being."
John Updike, Architectural Digest

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Prettified

East 18th


"I see New York, and every other city, as a living entity, though at one time New York was more vibrant than most. There's still good aspects, but I can't ignore that some of what made the city great has been prettified to make it more accessible to tourists, and that's hurt the city."
Jill Cunniff, New York Rock

Monday, October 8, 2018

Openness

Dumbo


"There's an openness to New York and New Yorkers in general that I'm really fond of. It's one of those places where you're out and about amongst people all day. I'm not dissing Los Angeles or anything—I like it too—but you're in a car so much in LA. Here everyone is saying hi to you."
Norman Reedus, NYCGo

Friday, October 5, 2018

Better When It Was Worse

Third Avenue


"There was a small, secret part of Nora that was comfortable with trash on the street. It reminded her of her youth, when she'd first arrived in a nastier, scarier, dirtier New York City and moved into a shabby apartment with her best friend, Jenny. A better New York, she sometimes thought to herself now, but never, ever said, one of the many things none of them ever admitted to themselves, at least aloud: that it was better when it was worse."
Anna Quindlen, Alternate Side

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Dark and Wet

Madison Square Park


"New York is always, always, always crowded and wet, and dark, and you learn to live with all of it and to wish you were back when you're not there."
Darryl Strawberry, Darryl

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

New York Hope

Central Park


"I walk across Central Park in new motorcycle boots, filled with a particular New York brand of hope. Everyone here is fulfilling vast dreams to make billions, redefine modern dance, launch artisanal ginger ale companies, and they are all in the park tonight."
Hannah Howard, Feast

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Proximity

Long Island City


"This was New York City, after all, not the suburbs. In the city, people did not make friends on the basis of proximity."
Ellen Feldman, The Unwitting

Monday, October 1, 2018

Civilized Hour

Lexington Avenue



"I am a New Yorker, and 7:00 am is a civilized hour to finish the day, not to start it."
Sonia Sotomayor, quoted in The Washington Post