New Beginning

Times Square Ball (Anthony Quintano / Wikimedia Commons)

"Every December, the eyes of the world are drawn to New York City, where a glittering crystal ball in Midtown Manhattan marks a communal chance for a new beginning."
Michael Gold, The New York Times

Sunrise in New York

"Our walk back to Manhattan is even more spectacular, as the sun is just beginning to rise. Like film being exposed, night turns to day. The World Trade Center and its orbit of skyscrapers are bathed in a soft silvery light, before turning a pale eachy pink, then finally exploding in Technicolor. It's so beautiful and breathtaking that I want to cry. But I don't."
Emily Giffin, The Lies that Bind

New Yorker for Life

"I'm a lifer and I will be a lifer as long as I am alive. When you grow up in New York, everywhere else feels like summer camp. It's like, 'Oh, it's really lovely over here, but when do I go back to real life?' 
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Travel and Leisure Magazine

Once-in-a-Lifetime Relationship

"The most significant emotional bond that any New Yorker has is with their real estate. Lovers, pets, even children, come and go. But finding the right New York apartment is a once-in-a-lifetime relationship. "
Ben Widdicombe, Gatecrasher

New York in Red and Green

Bryant Park (Pixabay)

"Cuddled up beneath a blanket taking in the sights
The City is all red and green
Wrapped up like a gift for me
Finally it's Christmas in New York
We should all have Christmas in New York
Lea Michele, Christmas in New York

Faith in New York

"When the pandemic hit, there were so many people saying  ‘New York is over, I’m fleeing New York, you gotta get out.' They said that when I was a little kid, in the ’70s, during the post-Vietnam era, and during the crack epidemic, during the AIDS epidemic, 9/11—same thing. This pandemic hit, and it has hit us hard, no doubt, but I still have faith in New York. I still believe in this place, because this place is my home."
Rosie Perez, Town and Country Magazine

Philly

Federal Hall (Pixabay)

"New York is like Philly to the 10th power."
Cynthia Lanzino, The New York Times

Manhattan at Christmastime

NYC (Pixabay) 

"We step onto the cold street and I can't help but feel warm. I adore Manhattan at Christmastime more than any other time of the year. There really is a hustle and bustle that I know drives a lot of people crazy, but I adore it."
Kirsten Sawyer, Not Quite a Bride

Cosmos

"New York is, of course, a cosmos rather than a mere city."
Vijay Seshadri, The New Yorker

Distinctive and the Same

"People are always interested, apparently, in what New York City does. I do not think that is because New York is different from any other place; I think it is because New York is so distinctive of and so like every other place. It is made up not of New Yorkers. It is a joke in New York that you can walk up and down the streets for hours and never meet a person who was born and brought up in New York."
Rosalie Loew Whitney, quoted in Extending the Right of Suffrage to Women

Infinite City

"New York is an infinite city, infinite in the sense that even if you have set out to explore all its nooks and crannies, by the time you have gone through it from top to bottom, the top has already changed and you need to go through it again."
Stanley Milgram, New York Magazine

Conjuring Trick

"There are days when New York strikes me as a conjuring trick. All great cities do and must revert to jungle, tundra or tidal-flats, if you wait long enough, and I should know. Today, however, New York's here-ness is incontestable, as if time is subject to it, not it subject to time. What immortal hand or eye could frame these charted miles, welded girders, inhabited sidewalks and more bricks than there are stars?"
David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks

Christmastime in New York

Sixth Avenue

"I don't celebrate Christmas, but I still love Christmastime in New York, and every second after Thanksgiving is Christmas as far as New York is concerned."
Hannah Moskowitz, Sick Kids in Love

New York Is Everything You've Heard It Is

"New York is a vibrant city. It’s everything you’ve heard it is. It’s crazy, it’s horrible, it’s magnificent, it’s beautiful. It’s hard to become a real grown-up in, because it really lends itself to a good time. It’s a real live wire, hard to leave, like a living, breathing entity in your life."
Whoopi Goldberg, Never Can Say Goodbye

Designated New Yorker

"I’m not leaving. In fact, I feel that I am like the designated New Yorker. Everyone else can leave."
Fran Lebowitz, The New Yorker

Heads in the Sand

"I grew up in New York and I believe that living here makes you insane. It’s obviously diverse, magical, whatever etcetera… but it’s not a place which lends itself to introspection. I don’t know what the outlook on life is, but I’d imagine it’s somewhere buried in the blue light of an iPhone screen. Eating a sandwich running down the street or trying to navigate a crowded train – people rarely have a chance to realize how brutally they’re living. That kind of self awareness is counterproductive. We have our heads in the sand… but it’s lovely sand."
Lucas Mascatello, Dazed

Resilience and Rebound

"The story of the 20th and 21st century in New York is one of resilience and rebound. New York is not over, New York has always come back from setbacks."
Lilly Tuttle, quoted in NBC New York

Multicolored Jewels

"When I saw the New York skyline, looking like a giant silver crystal encrusted with multicolored jewels, I envisioned I would live somewhere where I could see that. And I do. I see it clearly; I see the entire city from the rooftop of my  downtown Manhattan penthouse. As a result of a lot of hard labor, I went from swinging over garbage to singing in a mansion in the sky."
Mariah Carey, The Meaning of Mariah Carey

In Sickness and In Health

"I love New York City like you love family. It’s never been novel, it’s just what you know - in sickness and in health."
Carolyn Canetti, Travel Under the Radar

Good Times

"Here it is, heart of New York City, Times Square. Named for the good times you have when you’re in it."
Michael Scott (Steve Carell), The Office

Hard to Get

"New York is a city that plays hard to get. You want me, you better work for it."
Rony Vardi, quoted in The Points Guy

New York Makes Me Glad

"Other cities always make me mad
Other places always make me sad
No other city ever made me glad
Except New York
I love New York."
Madonna, I Love New York

Awe on Steroids

"Manhattan is awe on steroids."
Llewellyn King, Enterprise

Plain Talk

"I'm from Brooklyn. We talk plainly."
Al Sharpton, quoted in Newsweek

Grateful Witness

"Right now, New York feels ungentrified, and everyone who left the city left it to us, for us. The city feels more alive than I have seen it in some time. I see the performances at Sheridan Square on Christopher Street, and vogueing at Chelsea Piers. It feels like the city is alive with creativity and energy. I’m grateful to witness this version of NYC in my lifetime. This has been such a difficult time for all of us, yet New Yorkers are as resilient, pragmatic, and hopeful as ever."
Prabal Gurung, Fashion Week Daily 

New York Cab Ride

"The average New York cab ride is still one of the most exciting experiences in the city. These guys take chances with your life for 5 bucks that you wouldn't take for 5 million."
Jerry Seinfeld, Is This Anything?

Fragile Quilt

"New York is unique: a fragile quilt of many cultures, religions, and peoples whose contributions enhance and enlighten us all." 

David Dinkins, A Mayor's Life

Irritation and Attraction

 

"What is this strange thing that happens to me regarding New York? I spend my life chasing the slightest opportunity to come here, I arrive, and feel instantly possessed with a terrible indignation against everything. New York is a city that irritates me, but that attracts me in an irresistible way."
Julio Camba, La ciudad automatica

Galaxy Full of Stars

"Below me, the city spread out in all directions. Sparkling lights lined up in the neat rows of Manhattan, and the bridges to Queens and Brooklyn draped like beaded necklaces across the glassy East River. Looking at New York from above at night is like looking at a galaxy full of stars."
Juliana Romano, Summer in the Invisible City

Sense of Discovery

"All of these New York moments, their sights and sounds, their emotions, provide so much optimism and continue to feed the city's cultural imagination and regeneration. I have never felt so alive with a sense of discovery as I do here, never too sure of knowing what something tastes like. This is a city that teaches me about food, about people, about myself. And I experience the city each time I return like it's the first time."
Alain Ducasse, Alain Ducasse's New York

Climactic Synthesis of America

Times Square (Pixabay)

"New York is at once the climactic synthesis of America, and yet the negation of America in that it has so many characteristics called un-American."
John Gunther, The City

New York Chaos

"I loved the chaos of New York. The city is its own third world country, with its snarling traffic, its overflowing garbage cans, its corrupt politicians, and its rats and its rats that scurry across darkened streets and subway tracks."
Isabel Vincent, Dinner with Edward

All Faiths

"New York is of all faiths -- and of none. It is a Northern city, a Western city, a Southern city, a foreign city. It is a city of the extremes of selfishness and of philanthropy."
Edgar Fawcett, Edgar Fawcett

The Best

"New York City is one of the greatest places on the planet. You have the best in food, art, theatre, and definitely people-watching."
Matt Bomer, British GQ

New York Life

"That’s what New York life is like. You find a place with lots of sunlight, with at least a 1:4 rat to roach ratio, and within walking distance to a supermarket and/or train and/or bus to get you to that train or bus or what-have-you, and you plant yourself. You sit and wait and hope you can stay afloat when the next rent swell smashes into you."
Alcy Leyva, And Then There Were Crows

Anything Might Happen

Midtown (Pixabay)

"My impression is that in New York anything might happen at any moment. In England nothing could happen, ever."
John Sparrow, The City

Background Sound

"New York has a constant background sound, like the galaxy has constant background radiation, and New Yorkers use it to situate themselves, much as astronomers use radiation to fix our place in the universe."
Kevin Baker, The Atlantic 

The Best Thing About Being in New York

"The best thing about being in L.A. is having a car. The best thing about being in New York is that my car's in L.A."
Kevin Bray, Los Angeles Magazine

Central Relationship

Love by Robert Indiana (Pixabay)

"When I moved there in the late ’90s, I instantly fell in love with New York in a way that I had never and will never fall in love again (with a piece of geography). It was basically the central relationship of my life for a long time."
Devin Friedman, Medium

Sponge

Coney Island (Pixabay)

"New York is like a sponge. It absorbs you, empties you, and then throws you out to dry."
Unnamed undocumented immigrant, quoted in La Chulla Vida

Trying to Make It in New York

"Change has always been part of New York’s history, and the protagonist of its many tales of renewal is the city itself. New York is still trying to make it in New York."
Lucy Alexander, Robb Report

Bold and Proud

 "New York is unflinching and unapologetic. New York allows herself moments of vulnerability because she knows she’s strong as lignum vitae. New York is that way because she’s made of a community of people who are themselves—bold and proud, open and resilient."
Ilfenesh Hadera, Fashion Week Daily 

Fortune Teller

"You go to New York to have your fortunes told." 
Jean Cocteau, quoted in The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cruise Ship

"New York was like a giant cruise ship, one of the last remaining places where thirty-five was still considered young."
Jenny Mollen, Live Fast Die Hot

The Commonwealth of Brooklyn

Dumbo (Pixabay)

"Brooklyn was like a commonwealth, a colony of peoples, yet at the same time it served as a gateway. "
Andrew Sarris, Song of Brooklyn

Expect the Unexpected

Manhattan (Pixabay)

"New York City is a place where one can expect the unexpected. When the city shows its ugliness it is not a pretty sight, and when New York turns violent it is often brutal."
Richard Giudice, Everyone's a Suspect

Leaving Manhattan

George Washington Bridge (Pixabay)

"The thought of leaving Manhattan was like a tug in her gut, and not the pleasant, anticipatory kind. She'd grown up across the river, thinking Manhattan was the center of the universe. She'd never been the sort to get hit with wanderlust, had never had the desire to see what was over the next hill just because the hill hid the view."

Laura Anne Gilman, Blood from Stone

Inspiring Human Energy

"Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City. Feeling sorry for yourself because you can’t go to the theater for a while is not the essential element of character that made New York the brilliant diamond of activity it will one day be again."

Jerry Seinfeld, The New York Times

Bad Investment

Financial District (Pixabay)

"New York will take all your money and all your kindness and all your love and will keep it for itself. There is no return on your investment."
Dana Czapnik, The Falconer

Grandiose Necklace

"New York is more beautiful than Venice!! Its glass skyscrapers seem like large waterfalls falling from the sky!! At night it's a grandiose necklace of rubies sapphires and emeralds."
Lucio Fontana, 2018 International Yearbook of Futurism Studies