The Trumps

"New York absorbs almost anything. Even the Trumps. They're ours, unfortunately, but they're just another blip, a blemish, in the great panorama."
Jonathan Galassi, Words Without Borders

Asian or African Town

"New York was getting worse than Naples or Salonika. It was like an Asian, an African town, from this standpoint. The opulent sections of the city were not immune. You opened a jeweled door into degradation, from hypercivilized  Byzantine luxury straight into the state of nature, the barbarous world of color erupting from beneath."
Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet

When It Rains...

"When New York rains, it pours. When the first few snowflakes fall the city is a snowglobe palace…until the following morning when all the cars and boots and doggy paws have turned it all to slush. When New York is warm, it is stifling hot except for that one —everyone's got one— where they go to beat the heat. And New York at sunset—well, it’s the perfect setting for falling in love. Or saying goodbye. Or all too often—both, at the same time."
Rebecca Serle, Tumblr

Success in New York

"New York was a tough town, full of ruthless types waiting to rip you to shreds if they could. Success here could be brutal."
Fannie Flagg, Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Wildfire

"The lights of Manhattan and Brooklyn twinkled like wildfire, sending specks of gold dancing across the dark water."
Rachel Heng, Suicide Club

Ugly Winter

Manhattan (Pixabay)

"New York in winter is ugly—monstrously so. The snow reduces to slush on contact, immediately shot through with the gray and black of the city's soot and grime. Grease from the town's million and one restaurant cooking vents combines with the salty, cold blasts of wind that screech in off  the ocean to turn the dark ichor into a freezing, slippery mess that does nothing for the soul save hinder and depress."
C.J. Henderson, Nine Dragons

New York Competition

Union Square

"New York  is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and especially the people who live there. So you're immediately in competition with every new beautiful guy who steps off the plane, train or bus. During the tender, fragile time of a relationship, before you learn to love each despite your flaws, you have to stay on your A-Game and watch your back. You have to be the hottest, smartest, funniest, and most interesting person you can possibly be. It’s exhausting. I don’t even do any of that, I just get exhausted watching other people do it!"
Justin Luke Zirilli, Queerty

New York Beauty

"From an artist's point of view, New York is a unique city. It is a city of contrasts. The most interesting thing for an artist is the abundance of colorful categories of people. The city brings together people of all nationalities and races. New York's beauty is often found in its outrageous character and broad gamut of faces."
Yuri Grachev, In Search of Freedom, Harmony and Truth

Acceleration of the Pulse

"As one arrives, there is the old acceleration of the pulse—the mountainous gray skyline glimpsed from the Triborough Bridge, the cheerful games of basketball and handball being played on the recreational asphalt beside the FDR Drive, the startling, steamy, rain-splotched intimacy of the side streets where one’s taxi slows to a crawl, the careless flung beauty of the pedestrians clumped at the street corners. So many faces, costumes, packages, errands! So many preoccupations, hopes, passions, lives in progress! So much human stuff, clustering and streaming with a languid colorful impatience like the mass maneuvers of bees!"
John Updike, Architectural Digest

Status Symbol

"Jonathan had become increasingly disillusioned with living in New York. Something along the lines of: the city, New York fucking City, tedious and boring, its charms as illusory as its facade of authenticity. Its lines were too long. Everything was a status symbol and everything cost too much. There were so many on-trend consumers, standing in lines for blocks to experience a fad dessert, gimmicky art exhibits, a new retail concept store. We were all making such uninspired lifestyle choices. We, including me."
Ling Ma, Severance

In a Rush

"I'm a real, born-and-bred New Yorker, so I'm always in a rush and always over-scheduled."
Claire Distenfeld, Refinery 29

Beautiful People

"New York was fast. It was stylish. All the beautiful people lived there, and now maybe I could be one of them."
Vicki G. Riordan and Brian Riordan, Encore Performance

New York Atmosphere

"I love just driving past Times Square. Whenever my wife and I have a chance and we're coming from uptown to downtown, we always try to go through Times Square. It's life and it's fun. The atmosphere of New York is the best in the world."
Kyle MacLachlan, My City, My New York

Dante

"Dante. If he'd lived up to now, and wanted to add a Tenth Circle to Hell, he could call it New York."
Kathleen Rooney, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

New York Jobs

"New York is the city of the multihyphenate. What do I mean by that? Everyone I know here is a nanny—singer–WebMD doctor-cat whisperer-actor–paralegalbartender hybrid. To make it in New York, you need seventeen jobs."
Phoebe Robinson, You Can't Touch My Hair

Shared Island

"You know you can find me in New York
where everyone's different
but shares the same island
polluted and loud
but you're safe in the crowd
Here in New York."
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Cheering For Me Now

Official

"Hey, you moved here, you got mugged. It's official: you're a New Yorker now."
Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg), Blue Bloods

Emotional Bends

"I had spent the previous ten years getting used to an insanity I had actually learned to like: life in New York City. A New York life-style is difficult, but once you adjust to it, being out of it a long time can give you a case of the emotional 'bends.'"
Darryl Strawberry, Darryl

The Dream

"New York City represents the dream. We can call it the American dream, but it is bigger than that. The dream is about becoming something bigger than you are. Accomplishing success, however you measure it. NYC is a petri dish for dreams."
Matthew Modine, Soul Crime

Soul Crushing

"My only real issue with NYC is what happens when the Christmas lights come down, and we're left with nothing but three thick months of frigid weather, frozen grounds, and backlogged Instagram photos from the summer before to propel us forward. Waking up to a new snowstorm, or the realization that for the 12627th time since February 1st I can't pick my clothes because the weather has to pick them for me, is soul-crushing."
Leandra Medine, Refinery29

Surreal

"New York, of course, is to be in endless surreal situations where a fifty-thousand dollar, gun-metal Mercedez pulls up into a puddle of blood, and out steps a twenty-five karat blonde transvestite with a two dollar wristwatch."
Tom Waits, Innocent When You Dream

Sui Generis

"New York is an island nation. It belongs to New York State, yes, but its people, its traditions, its style are sui generis; it's somewhere between Europe and California."
Jonathan Galassi, Words Without Borders

Stunning

"Again and again, the general impression of new York is indeed stunning, the skyscrapers, the masses of people from all nations and races milling about, the host of churches and chapels,”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Doubled Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer