Thursday, February 28, 2019

Head High



"New York is a big city, the houses reach into the clouds. The trains go over the roofs. The Gentiles speak English. No one walks with his eyes on the ground, everybody holds his head high."
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Collected Stories

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Lucky New Yorker



"I'm pretty damn lucky. I mean, I live in New York fucking City. I actually live here! Sorry, sometimes I just have to remind myself of that."
Andi Dorfman, Single State of Mind

Monday, February 25, 2019

State of Mind



"New York is where I learned to survive. New York's about not taking no for an answer. It's more a state of mind than a place to me."
Madonna, quoted in Mirror

New York Climate



"The one thing you probably won't be expecting in New York is the climate. No one in their right mind would build a city here. Well, only the Dutch, and they built a whole country below sea level. New York bakes in a cess of gritty fug all summer,  and congeals into grey slush all winter. There are a couple of days in the spring and autumn when the sky is madonna blue, the air crisp, and the light bright and sparkling, and that's when they take the pictures and make the romantic comedies."
A.A. Gill, The Golden Door

Friday, February 22, 2019

Staten Island



"State officials in New York have approved a new plan that will surround part of Staten Island with a 5.3 mile-long sea wall to protect it from floodingand to protect the rest of New York from Staten Island."
Seth Meyers, Late Night with Seth Meyers

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Greatest Town



"Whether she is clean or dirty
She's the greatest town that you'll ever find, yeah!
She is my heart
I love New York City."
Lenny Kravitz, New York City

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Open New York

West Chelsea


"Snowflakes were falling gently from the sky, and it was the kind of winter day that was comfortably cold. Moments like those, New York opens itself up, surprises me, whispers its secrets to me, even calls me by name, and I am left believing that he city really is as magical as people are always saying."
Alexia Arthurs, How to Love a Jamaican

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Civilization



"Anyplace you can go in New York City where you don't feel like you are in New York is a particularly magical experience. I believe that if you can live in this city and think it's a laid-back piece of real estate, then you've conquered civilization."
Jay Jay French, My City, My New York

Monday, February 18, 2019

Challenging



"My New York does not settle for mediocrity. You challenge me every day. At least once or twice a week, you slap me hard in the face and say, 'Sweetie, if you want this, you’re going to have to do better than that.' That’s why I love you. You don’t let me be lazy. You don’t let me just get by. Yet instead of making me feel inadequate, you have boosted my confidence. You empower me, you excite me, and you exhaust me. And I love every second of it."
Giana Ricci, Thought Catalog

Friday, February 15, 2019

Navel of the Universe

Unisphere (Pixabay)

"Living as you do in New York, the navel of the universe, it is easy to confuse the Midwest and the South."
John Fleischman, quoted in Zany's New York City Apartment Guide



Thursday, February 14, 2019

City of Freaks



"New York is a city of freaks; there is always room for one of everything."
Francis Ogilvy, quoted in The King of Madison Avenue

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Running Behind



"Getting pissed that someone is slowing me downdon't they know I have somewhere to be?!instead of getting mad at myself for not leaving home ten minutes earlier is not only ridiculous but also very New York. We're always running behind, overbooked, and missing the train all because some idiot (not us) made us late."
Phoebe Robinson, You Can't Touch My Hair

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Huge Factory

Domino Sugar Refinery


"I told you that New York is like a huge factory, full of tall crates with people running in and out of them. I can tell you now that in the months I've been here, I've seen the twinkliest of fairies and the queenliest of queens on earth."
Reinaldo Arenas, The Color of Summer

Monday, February 11, 2019

Drinks in Hell



"Many believe that a day in New York is a guided tour of the Garden of Eden. I believe that it is like having a few drinks in hell."
Alejandro Kuropatwa, Kuropatwa en Technicolor

Friday, February 8, 2019

The Best



"Lots of people say New York is the greatest city in the world, because it is. It's a pretty no-nonsense place, too, because people aren't shy about telling you what they think. When you rub elbows with ten million people, there's a lot of aggressiveness going on. But competition always brings out the best, and New York  has the best theater, the best restaurants, the best museums, the best diversity anywhere."
Yogi Berra, What Time Is It? You Mean Now?

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Return to New York



"It was equally exquisite to return to New York. The city—yes, even the old, crummy, loud, chaotic city—had become new, especially the parts of it that I hadn't experienced much before. Saint Marks was like being transported to another world, to a smattering of weirdness that looked like it belonged in Tokyo. It was a strip of neon lights, the awnings cluttered next to one another, the colorful signs selling psychic readings, comics, socks, records, piercings, wigs, foot massages. And yet, I was walking through it with such euphoria. Escaping the city is easy, but there is no known cure for how good it feels to come back."
Leslie Cohen, This Love Story Will Self-Destruct

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Insular City



"There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land."
Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Makes Everyone Better



"New York is the capital of the world; it's the best place on the planet. New York makes everyone better."
Bobby Cannavale, AOL TV


Monday, February 4, 2019

New York Neighborhoods

Williamsburg


"I miss specific years in specific New York neighborhoods the way amputees miss limbs. I'm so nostalgic for the West Village in 1997 that it literally hurts, you know? Or Williamsburg in 2000. Or Bushwick in 2004. It's the most bittersweet thing in the world."
Barbara Bourland, I'll Eat When I'm Dead

Friday, February 1, 2019

New York Voices



"Since I arrived in New York yesterday, it's like my voice is in a rush to join all the other voices, all the other sounds: I haven't talked so freely or so much in my whole life. Somehow, it feels so much easier to speak when everyone else is fighting to be heard, too."
Lauren Oliver, Broken Things