Thursday, October 31, 2019

Halloween in New York City

Store on Fifth Avenue

"There's nothing like Halloween in New York City. After all, New York is home to some of the most artistic and creative people on the planet, most of whom will jump at any opportunity to put on a show. Consider the city's eight hundred thousand drag queens, who, just to take a trip to the deli, will put on seven-inch platforms, a sequined butterfly jacket, and a two-foot wig. Now try to imagine such people at Halloween."
Lee Harrington, Rex and the City

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Every Race on Earth

Brooklyn Bridge Park

"Every race on earth claims New York; some pre-empt it; some own it; some imagine they own it; all cultivate it; a chosen few harvest it; and all agree that it makes Paris and paradise look like a circus lemonade."
Life Magazine

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Big Hug



"Coming to New York is like a big hug, everyone is so welcoming. There’s something about here, everyone makes you feel so at home."
Archie Panjabi, Los Angeles Times

Monday, October 28, 2019

City of Immigrants



"New York is a city of immigrants. You become a New Yorker through being in New York, not through having been born in New York."
Hermione Hoby, Five Books

Friday, October 25, 2019

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Attractive New York



"I very much like New York. If France's situation didn't obsess my memory, my stay in New York would be pleasant and interesting. The skyscrapers are like cliffs and crags; I like the chaotic quality of the beauty: it is a new way of thinking about beauty. Whether the streets are beautiful or ugly, I always find them attractive."
Mary Gordon, The Liar´s Wife

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Grand and Gritty



"New York is a grand, hard, gritty place where no one underestimates their own importance or overestimates anyone else's."
Brian Urquhart, A Worldly Affair

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Mythical Dominion



"Terribly funny, yes, but Brooklyn is also sad brutal provincial lonesome human silent sprawling raucous lost passionate subtle bitter immature innocent perverse tender mysterious, a place where Crane and Whitman found poems, a mythical dominion against whose shores the Coney Island sea laps a wintry lament."
Truman Capote, Portraits and Observations

Monday, October 21, 2019

Beach-Head and Banker



"New York is not the United States. It is mainly a beach-head for Europe and a banker for America."
Ernst Bacon, Frontier Figures

Friday, October 18, 2019

Everywhere and Nowhere



"My desire is nothing but a myth — New York, which is everywhere and nowhere."
Simone de Beauvoir, America Day by Day

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Apple-Cheeked Optimism



"The city was different back thenpoor and crumblingkept alive only by the gritty determination and steely cynicism of its occupants. But underneath the dirt was the apple-cheeked optimism of possibility, and while she worked, the whole city seemed to throb along with her."
Candace Bushnell, Lipstick Jungle

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Vital and Fertile



"I'm not one of the wise ones who try to put Hollywood down. It just happens that I fit to cadence and pace better here as far as living goes. New York is vital, above all, fertile."
James Dean, The Unabridged James Dean

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Neon Grunginess



"One minute New York was a juicy boil of lust, crime, and possibility, the next it was  just another innocuous American city. Thankfully, a lot of Brooklyn and all of Coney are intact. Lonesome and soulful in their faded neon grunginess."
Maggie Estep, Hex

Monday, October 14, 2019

The Smell of New York City



"Outside was dark and only the blinking lights of New York City and a full moon were visible. I could smell a blend of car fumesgarbage and mildewed drainage pipes; this was the smell of New York City."
 Alexei Maxim Russell, Trueman Bradley, Aspie Detective

Friday, October 11, 2019

Endless Chances



"New York is a city of endless chances and opportunity for those who are willing to dream and work hard." 
David Levinson, Crain's New York

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Emotional Palimpsest



"The city is an emotional palimpsest for all its inhabitants. There's that certain street corner, where you had your first kiss with someone, or there's that street crossing where you had an argument. These places become so emotionally freighted for everyone who lives in the city and, of course, that might be the same street corner that you see in, say, Woody Allen’s Manhattan."
Hermione Hoby, Five Books

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Spiritual Decay



"The eye bends down from the jutting skyscraper-man's material achievement—to gaze in horror on the pawing mess of Broadway at lunchtime and the greasy, muttering squalor of the interior of a subway car—surely the symbol of man's spiritual decay."
William Styron, Selected Letters of William Styron

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Invincible New York



"Everywhere else could fall apart, but not New York. Its glossy, reflective surfaces and moneyed environments seemed invincible. Even after 9/11, even after the attempted bombings, even after the blackouts and the hurricanes and the rising waters due to global warming."
Ling Ma, Severance

Monday, October 7, 2019

Humbugs



"Oh, how I loathe New York! New York is not America. It is the place where all the humbugs come together. It is the place where foreigners of all nations mingle. The New Yorkers are not Americans."
Vladimir de Pachmann, Chopin's Prophet

Friday, October 4, 2019

Vegetable Garden



"Manhattan was sprouting like a vegetable garden in Junebuildings stacking on top of one another."
Juliet Grames, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Crossroads

Manhattan (Pixabay)

"New York is the crossroads of commerce and culture, of fantasy and reality, where possibility hangs in the night air."
Andrea Henderson Fahnestock, Picturing New York

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Mistress



"My relationship with New York is like that of one with a mistress: exciting, sexy and dangerous, but I'm always aware that I'm playing away. London is my life and Manhattan is my bit on the side."
Graham Norton, The Life and Loves of a He Devil

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Promised Land

Brooklyn Bridge Park

"New York is the promised land, looking green, fat, luscious and joyous from the outside deserts; the promised land flowing with milk and honey, the pasturage of lambs and bulls, and of bears which eat up those who monkey with the profits."
Life Magazine