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