Friday, November 30, 2012

Restless

Kenmare Street

"New York retains the restlessness that made America great. There is a sense of adventure even about its pickle vendors and garage mechanics. The exceptional New Yorker is the one who is completely at peace with himself."
Paul Crowell and A.H. Raskin, Our Fair City

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Success

The Pierre

"Unlike Washington and Los Angeles, where people rise and fall based on some secret chart, New York is a place where the wiring diagram is very visible and fundamentally, oddly, just. If you are good at what you do, work hard, and don't back down, you can make a place to stand on the island."
David Carr, The Night of the Gun

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Mystery

Freeman Alley

"New York is not mysterious. New York is a mystery. What is this place where Chaos stretches and sits down and makes himself at home?"
Maeve Brennan, The Long-Winded Lady

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Bragging Rights

Park Avenue South

"When New Yorkers tell one about the dangers of their city, the muggings, the dinner parties to which no one turns up for fear of being attacked on the way, the traffic snarl-ups, the bland indifference of the city cops, they are unmistakably bragging."
Jonathan Raban, Soft City

Monday, November 26, 2012

Stephen King

"Developing Tray #2" by Anne Collier

"New York is like living inside Stephen King's brain during an aneurysm."
Kevin Rooney, quoted in Funniest Thing You Never Said 2

Sunday, November 25, 2012

I Happen to Like New York

West 57th

"I happen to like New York, I happen to like this town.
I like the city air, I like to drink of it,
The more I know New York the more I think of it.
I like the sight and the sound and even the stink of it.
I happen to like New York."
Cole Porter, I Happen To Like New York

Saturday, November 24, 2012

No Thonx

Spuyten Duyvil

"The Bronx? No thonx."
Ogden Nash, quoted in 2320 Funniest Quotes

Friday, November 23, 2012

New Yorks

Brooklyn Bridge

"There are so many New Yorks that you can always find the special one that fits your special pattern."
Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Two Lives

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Man-Made Spectacle

NY skyline (Photo: Daniel Schwen)

"New York is a skyline, the most stupendous, unbelievable, man-made spectacle since the hanging gardens of Babylon."
Jacques Barzun, Images of the American City

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Uncivilized

East Houston

"It is hard for us to believe that anyone would want to live in New York City. It is too uncivilized a place."
Sheri De Borchgrave, A Dangerous Liaison

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A Case Apart

West 33rd

"New York's a case apart. You people think of the rest of the world as your goddamned farm club."
Mark Winegardner, The Godfather's Revenge

Monday, November 19, 2012

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Going Back

George Washington Bridge

"Going back home to New York is like going back to an old girlfriend just because you remembered how great the sex had been. The minute you come, you remember all the reasons you'd decided to go the last time."
Andrew Vachss, Terminal

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Times Square

Times Square

"The island is vivid with energy. In that sense, Times Square has once again become our most perfect symbol: noisy, plural, brash, vulgar, shifting, slightly dangerous."
Pete Hamill, Downtown

Friday, November 16, 2012

The Only City

Downtown (Photo: Schuyler Shepherd)  

"If you must live in a city, New York is the only city in the world."
Katherine Neville, Calculated Risk

Thursday, November 15, 2012

More Mystery than Promise

Midtown

"New York City: it held more mystery than promise, but that was enough."
Brooke Parkhurst, Belle in the Big Apple

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Insane

Crosby St.

"I moved to New York, a city that has a way of undoing your sanity, bit by bit."
Shallon Lester, Exes and Ohs

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Character-Builder

Central Park

"Living in New York is a character-builder; you must know who you are, what you're doing, where you're going, and how to get there."
George Carlin, Brain Droppings

Monday, November 12, 2012

Subway System

Corona Yard

"I hate the New York City subway system. They're not train cars, they're urinals with wheels. And they're dangerous. If I want to spend time locked up with a creepy, stinky old perv, I'll pay a conjugal visit to Phil Spector."
Joan Rivers, I Hate Everyone.. Starting with Me

Sunday, November 11, 2012

An Old Sweetheart

West Village

"New York is simply incredible. About five times larger than when I last saw it. I said in my radio talk that every time I came back to New York it was like meeting an old sweetheart and finding she had put on a lot of weight."
P.G. Wodehouse, P.G. Wodehouse: Portrait of a Master

Saturday, November 10, 2012

New Yorkers

Bryant Park

"New Yorkers are born all over the country, and then they come to New York City and it hits them: Oh, that’s who I am."
Delia Ephron, New York Magazine

Friday, November 9, 2012

Collage

Central Park, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Winter Garden, Grand Army Plaza and Columbia University

"New York City is or can be regarded as a collage, as opposed to, say, a tribal village in which all the huts (or yurts, or whatever) are the same hut, duplicated. The point of collage is that unlike things are stuck together to make, in the best case, a new reality."
Donald Barthelme, Donald Barthelme: A Study of the Short Fiction 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Winter Hell

West 42nd Street

"During the winter months in New York City, everyone runs around like animals cursing everyone else in every language imaginable, the parking stinks, and every time you go to cross the street in Times Square or someplace, you end up getting splashed with dirty sewer water. All that plus it's cold as hell out."
M. Dylan Raskin, Little New York Bastard

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Philosophy of Life

Columbia University Department of Philosophy

"New York is, of course, a lot more than a city. New York is a philosophy of life."
Christa Ludwig, In My Own Voice: Memoirs

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Greatest City

Madison Avenue

"This is the greatest city in the world. If you don’t like it, leave."
Edgar Raffit (Kevin Cooney), Mad Men

Monday, November 5, 2012

Infinity

Top of the Rock


"New York is for far-sighted people, people who can focus to infinity."
Jean-Paul Sartre, Sartre

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Lourdes

Grotto Church of Notre Dame

"New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat."
Brendan Behan, quoted in New York Literary Lights

Friday, November 2, 2012

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Richest and Poorest

Zuccotti Park

"New York is not just the richest and poorest city on earth, it is the richest and poorest at the same time and on the same block."
A. Alvarez, Night