Friday, June 28, 2019

Water in New York

East River

"I think of New York City in terms of water. The majestic Hudson, the industrious East River, the tormented Gowanus Canal, the adventurous Atlantic. But the subway is the most notable of all: a true sea of humanity; everyone in it determined to swim against the current." 
Masha Turchinsky,  quoted in Humanos y Marcianos en Nueva York

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Big League



"New York is the only big-league city there is. Anywhere else is just the minors."
John McGraw, quoted in The Ultimate Book of New York Lists

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Life is Hard



"New York is the capital of the world, not because of its wealth and influence, but because it lives the unspoken universal truth that life is hard and knowing that turns small victories into world-class triumphs—to be followed, of course, by a cosmic horselaugh."
Roger Rosenblatt, Where We Stand

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

New York Morality




"I really believe that you grow up a certain way in New York. There's a New York morality, a sense of loyalty. You know how to win and lose. There's a thousand kids outside, you know who to push and who not to push."
James Caan, The Daily News


Monday, June 24, 2019

Lion's Den



"New York is really the place to be; to go to New York, you're going to the center of the world, the lion's den." 
Zubin Mehta, The New York Times

Friday, June 21, 2019

Dawn in New York



"Out of the tenements, cold as stone,
Dark figures start for work;
I watch them sadly shuffle on,
'Tis dawn, dawn in New York."
Claude McKay, Complete Poems

Thursday, June 20, 2019

New York City Lights

Manhattan (Pixabay)



"New York City lights so bright
We can lose ourselves
And start a new life
Run away and leave tonight
(let's do it, feel it, touch it, taste it)
New York City take a bite."
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, New York City Lights

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Capital of the World



"There is only one capital of the world and that is New York. I get very excited when I am here. But in the long run, I know New York eats you."
Hildegard Knef, quoted in Valentines & Vitriol

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Thin New Yorkers



"Everyone in Manhattan is thin. It's not that there aren't fat people. There are. They're called tourists."
Jack Gray, Pigeon in a Crosswalk

Monday, June 17, 2019

Wave of Energy



“I think is New York the most beautiful city in the world. There is an extraordinary wave of energy. So much happens, the best of the world is here."
Franco Zeffirelli, The New York Post

Friday, June 14, 2019

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Comfort



"If you had asked me this in the '90s, I would've predicted New York was going towards Tokyo or Blade Runner. New York was going to get taller; there'd be sex clubs in buildings that catered to hospital fetishes. And there'd be freeze-dried drinks at bars. In reality because of 9/11 it's a run for comfort. It's the proliferation of cupcake shops. New York has.tried to recast itself to look like the rest of America. Instead of rising like a phoenix, it retreated into itself."
Julia Cafritz, New York Rock

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Little Pity



"New Yorkers look at me and my wheelchair the same way they look at the guy with the wild eyes and tattered clothes who knows the world is coming to an end next Tuesday because the leprechaun in his pocket just told him so.  They completely ignore us. Yep—there's very little pity on the streets of the big city."
James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, I Funny

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Parade

Broadway

"New York is like being in the middle of a parade where everyone has been called home, all at once, in all different directions."
Anna Solomon, The Little Bride

Monday, June 10, 2019

Birthday Cake

Downtown Manhattan (Pixabay)

"I turned back and watched New York City recede behind us, as if the whole island were floating away in the summer wind, this island like a birthday cake for an ancient giant with a mammoth appetite, a cake on fire with its blazing windows and broken promises, and kept ones, too, everyone's fifteen minutes and everyone's could-have-been, everyone's one-that-got-away and no one, lost children and grown-ups trying to get lost in its neck-cricking height, its rushing streets, its tunnel-deep icy-officed smoke of a thousand cigarettes clouding your eyes. All the light floating away from us."
Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused

Friday, June 7, 2019

Manhattan in Focus



"Manhattan comes into focus, with its soaring skyscrapers, indifferent with grim, geometric faces; the wide, busy streets where taxis race to an indefinite finish line; the scaffolding around construction sites looking like bat wings arched toward the sliver of blue sky; the smell of sewer and hot piss rising with the steam coming from underground like a dragon's breath; the foreign tongues speaking all at once like on the tower of Babel, maddening with the honking of horns, the screeching of wheels, the high-pitched soprano of sirens; and above it all, the roar of Cicely's words. 'We too old fah dis.'"
Nicole Dennis-Benn, Patsy,

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Perfect New York



"There will never be another New York like that one. I'm not defaming all the New Yorks that came before 1940, or all the New Yorks that came after 1940. They all have their importance. But this is a city that gets born anew in the fresh eyes of every young person who arrives here for the first time. So that city, that place—newly created for my eyes only—will never exist again. It is preserved forever in my memory like an orchid trapped in a paperweight. That city will always be my perfect New York."
Elizabeth Gilbert, City of Girls

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

America

Top of the Rock

"New York is not America, but it is plain to all beholders that all America would like to be New York."
Yvon Lapaquellerie, quoted in New York: The Big Apple Quote Book

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Good and Bad Times

Coney Island boardwalk

"In good times, New York is really good, but in bad times, New York is even better; it offers myriad ways to pass the time and heal."
Jake Dobkin, Ask a Native New Yorker

Monday, June 3, 2019

Mumbai

Little India

"New York, I decided, was like Mumbai, only cleaner. It didn't have the rainy-day prettiness of Paris, but the people could be as gruff. Everything felt rushed, as if time was slipping away and everyone had to eat, move, talk, and think faster than if they were anywhere else."
Brinda Charry, Naked in the Wind