Global Tradition

Times Square (Wikimedia Commons)

"Every year as the clock nears midnight on December 31, the eyes of the world turn once more to the dazzling lights and bustling energy of Times Square. Anticipation runs high. New Year's Eve at the symbolic center of New York City has become more than just a celebration — it's a global tradition. The world holds its breath, and cheers as the clocks strike twelve."
TimesSquareNYC.org

In Need of New York

"The New York I know and love was front and centre of some of the most creative counterculture movements of our times. The city still doesn't sleep, but she's been dozing for a couple of decades. I hope she stops hitting the snooze button soon, because music -- as well a art, film and fashion -- needs her."
Huey Morgan, Renegades of Music & Why We Still Need Them

Functional Utopia

"Brooklyn is the conscience of New York. While Manhattan tears everything down and changes everything, Brooklyn does a similar thing, but fails miserably at it. It is a crazy quilt of a place. A mongrel place of sorts. It mixes old and modern in a haphazard way. It represents a tiny microcosm of the world—functional utopia."
Jonathan Lethem, quoted in The Brooklynites

People Watching

"I think the best thing about New York City is the energy and the people, and there's no other city like it. That's why when you come here, you are intoxicated by it and just love to people watch: the best thing in the city."
Michael Strahan, The Hollywood Reporter

Unnatural and Otherwordly

"New York is not nice. It is unnatural and otherworldly. There are moments it can be sweet, but at its best, it is jarring. It can be distorted, loud, unpredictable and heavy. It can make you feel like you’re the only person in a crowded room. It can make you feel like you'll never be alone."
Erica Hawkins, Grammy.com

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas! We hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday, and that 2022 brings you much success, joy, health -- and the end of this pandemic.
NY Daily Quote

Bustling New York

"Rockefeller's covered in the lights
Families are playing on the ice
From Harlem to the Battery
Every corner's bustling
Suddenly it's Christmas in New York."
Lea Michele, Christmas in New York

Gibbering Zoo

Central Park Zoo (Wikimedia Commons)

"You might expect New Yorkers to be unusually cool people. Shouldn’t their ownership of the cultural epicentre of the American century, if not the Chinese one, confer on them a rare smoothness, a serene and commanding urbaneness? Um, nope. Like most other unhealthily large concentrations of humanoid biomass, New York is in fact a gibbering zoo of neurotics, dorks and freaks. Their brains are so cooked by life inside the volcano of late capitalism that they have no idea how to be cool, and no desire to either."
Carlos Amato, Mail & Guardian

Imagine New York City

"Imagine a place where you were free to be whoever you wanted to be. Imagine a place where you could bring your biggest, boldest dreams and pursue them. Imagine a place where everybody is different, yet everobody is connected by the energy and the love for this place. This place is New York City."

Mazine Lineham, NYC Next

New Yorkers' Egos

Midtown Manhattan (Pixabay)

"It’s a proven Fact that Manhattan is the center of the Universe. Everything you’ve heard is true. The egos of most New Yorkers are bigger and more inflated than the Yankees’ salary cap. But they’ve earned it. So just deal. If you live there, you’ll end up with one, too."

Kristin Norton, Movoto

Outrageous Town

 

Madison Square Garden

"Playing in New York is a rush that's near impossible to describe: the manic energy and the limitless possibilities; the worship of excellence and intolerance of failure. The feeling that something fabulous was always happening in some corner of this outrageous town."
Mark Messier, No One Wins Alone

Sensory Overload

Greenwich Village

"Living in New York is sensory overload. You're muscling your way down NY streets, you're hearing horns blaring, traffic noises and people shouting, you're inhaling pretzels up one nostril and urine up the other.... it was over-stimulation to me. It was hard to shut myself down enough to keep all that out." 
Victoria Gabrielle Pratt, quoted in IMDB

Home Alone: Lost in New York

"How'd you get lost in New York? I know it's kind of stupid to complain about a movie that came out 17 years ago, but I wasn't a comedian back then, so I have to do it now. I wish I'd been. I wish I'd been a Def Jam Comic when that movie came out. I would have torn it to pieces. Be like 'you seen this shit? You seen this Home Alone: Lost in New York shit? It's a grid system, motherfucker. Where you at? 24th and 5th? Where you wanna go? 35th and 6th? 11 up and 1 over, you simple bitch!'"
John Mulaney, Comedy Central

Stay Young

"I have a theory that people tend to think the real New York, the authentic New York, is the New York from when they were about 25. It's a city for young people. On some level in the city you either find a way to stay young or you get out of the way."
David Marcus, Fox News

One Percent

"Ninety-nine percent of your life in New York is going to happen in one percent of the city. And once you find the one percent that feels like home, the rest of the city might as well not exist. You want me to ride in a cab for seven whole minutes to meet you for dinner? Uh, too far. Out of my zone."

Elvis Duran, Where Do I Begin?

Better than Everybody Else

"Everybody from New York thinks they’re better than everybody else. Everybody, we think we’re smarter. Not just rich people. Poor people, middle-class… This is the only city that has blue-collar snobs. You know. Take somebody, two years of high school, put ’em in a room with MIT professors, after an hour, you’re like, 'What’d you think of them' 'They’re not New York. They don’t'… You know. 'They’re… They’re educated. I give ’em that. You know. They’re smart, but they don’t get it. They got their head up their ass. No common sense, you know.'

Colin Quinn, The New York Story

Something to See and Do

"My favorite thing about New York is that there is always something to do or see no matter where you go. The city is so big and the neighborhoods are so different from one another that you are never disappointed. There is something for everyone to discover all the time!"
Maud-Amelie Mingoia, Pace.edu

Go-Getter Attitude

"Having lived 12 years in London, it was the perfect training for New York, as both cities share many similarities in terms of energy, creative scenes, and cultural diversity. New York is more fast paced, yes, but it is somehow easier to maneuver and to get things done here because of the positive and go-getter attitude."
Alban de Pury, Artsy.net

More Alive

Apple store in Manhattan (Pixabay)

"After living here for three years, New York still feels like a miracle. It’s like one day I realized I could actually slip through the Looking Glass. When I first arrived, everything felt so much more alive than anywhere else  I’d lived before: riding the subway, or jostling through crowds at Union Square. Even being inside took on new meaning. I would be at home— which, really, could have been an apartment anywhere — and I would think, with a shock: New York City is outside! "
Marshall Bright, Refinery29

Violent Feelings

Brooklyn Bridge (Pixabay)

"New York is famous for provoking violent feelings. Its whole thing is that you go there once and then immediately embark on the costly and ruinous process of dismantling your own perfectly reasonable life in order to move there forever."
Rosa Lyster, The Outline

New York Means Everything

"New York means everything to me. It really is the city of dreams. With the right tools, you can make anything you desire to become reality, especially if you work hard. This is a city that can make (or break) you."
Jessica Willis, OliverPeoples.com

Permanent Ups and Downs

"New York goes through a lot. It’s a place of permanent ups and downs. It’s always in flux, and it’s never quite how it’s described. One block can feel completely different from the next. The city’s intensity doesn’t come from consistency. It comes from the clash of crowds and cultures."
Mark Fedeli, Tablet Hotels Magazine

New York Performance

"Everybody in New York is performing. As soon as you leave your apartment, you're putting on a facade."
Candace Bushnell. WSJ Magazine

Not Dead

"The cost of living here has gone up and people are being pushed out further and further from the areas where the cool things were happening just a few years ago. It’s not the same, so a lot of people tend to be like, 'New York is dead.' I just think you have to search a little harder and go a little farther to find the cool stuff, but it’s definitely still out there. There’s a history and cultural energy here that doesn’t exist anywhere else, and I feel like I kind of forgot that until I left for a while. I went to LA for four months and when I came back I was like, 'Oh whoa. Yeah, New York is not dead as I thought it was.'"
Justin Strauss, Ace Hotel Blog

Hearsay

"I love
New York
I've lived here thirty-six years
And, buddy, I'm sold
It's great
In New York
There's so much to see and to do
At least, so I'm told
That's what I hear."

Stephen Sondheim, New York

Abduction

 "I've often felt New York is a kind of abduction. We sort of like to be here, but you never really feel in control."
Jerome Sirlin, New York Magazine

Nothing Compares to New York

"To call New York a city is to call the mosaics in the Basilica of San Vitale wall murals. As I rose into Manhattan from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, I was trying to process the scene through the filters of all prior 'big city experiences,' but nothing computed."
John Nagy, The Pilot

Thankful for New York

Thanksgiving Day Parade (Wikimedia Commons)

"I’m super thankful to call this judgement-free city home. You’re allowed to unapologetically be yourself and live your best life."
Bridget Lo, Time Out NY

Central Park

Manhattan (Pixabay)

"The great thing about New York is that it’s so tiny and there’s so much going on, yet you have this vast park in the middle. There’s so many areas where you can loose yourself. The rats not withstanding, it’s still a great place to go."
James Toback, Gothamist

Proud to Be a New Yorker

"The more I travel, the more I want to come home to New York City. So I'm really proud to be a New Yorker and I look forward to the next New York and building the future of this city together. No matter the highs or the lows. the city always bounces back, 'cause  underneath that strength, this city has a big heart and it's beating strong."
Peter Cincotti, NYC Next

Media Capital of the World

"Apparently, no matter what befalls the Big Apple, NYC remains the media capital of the world. It's weird. It's like declaring Afghanistan the best place to open a gay-friendly bed in breakfast. I've tried. Sure, in New York City, you could be pushed in front of a subway train by a guy wearing nothing but a smile and a hospital bracelet. But really, the Broadway shows are to die for. Nothing makes you forget about your grandma getting mugged for her false teeth than a matinee showing of Hello, Dolly!"
Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

Unreplicable

"You can't replicate New York. it's unlike any place in the world. The combination of the architecture and the people who live here is so distinctive as to be un-repro-ducable anywhere else."
Harrison Ford, Harrison Ford: The Films

Exciting Feeling

Madison Square Garden

"Being in New York City is different than any other place,. New York City hums. There’s a drone, a sound in your mind when you're in New York City. It never sleeps. It’s going all the time. It’s power-packed. You can’t avoid the sensation of people doing things and going places and things going on. You just sense it the minute you’re in New York City, and that’s an exciting feeling to begin with."
Billy Joel, NY Daily News

Overwhelming

"Suddenly there I was in New York -- and it looked and sounded just like it did in the movies. As a Londoner I thought I would be well able to cope with all the action, but the speed and the energy of life there I found overwhelming."
Michael Caine, What's It All About?

Babel Without Confusion

"New York is Babel without confusion of tongues. A place of refuge for all races of the world from the flood of ancient sorrows; the forlorn hope of humanity that, having lived too long, seeks rebirth."
Ford Madox Ford, New York is Not America

Forward Movement

"As Lenny Bruce said, everybody in New York is a Jew even if you’re not Jewish. I believe that there is an energy up here…moving quickly without being hurried. Forward movement on the balls of their toes, not the heels."
Richard Kind, West Side Rag

Own Rhythm

"For me New York turned out to be completely claustrophobic. But it wasn't only a nightmare; it was also a fascinating place. I remember when I didn't have money; it's a difficult city to live in without money. I think that the only thing that I really liked about New York was that it used to break its own rhythm :  'Pum !, pum !, pum !,' like a musician playing the drums. But that also made it difficult for me; I had to find my own rhythm."
Terry Gilliam, Terry Gilliam

Sparkles and Thrills

 

"New York is floating in my blood because it’s one of the cities where I feel most at home. There’s really an energy and a pace which I love to live in and to live with. I think that New York is special and gives sparkles and thrills that no other city in the world gives to me, that’s for sure."
Lapo Elkann, Vogue

Real Magic

"I miss New York so much since I moved back to London four years ago. I miss the freedom of the city. There’s real magic. New York is my love. I love every single thing about it. I could cry."
Sienna Miller, Purist

Sesame Street

"New York is like Sesame Street for grown-ups, everyone has big hearts and you can be anything you want to be."
Caroline Kepnes, Providence

Rise to the Occasion

"New York is like a great pair of leather pants or a leather jacket. It’s very edgy, ambitious, driven, and it requires so much tenacity to live here. New York has really helped me rise to the occasion."
Edvin Thompson, Dazed

Rude and Polite

"New York is New York. We’re what everybody says we are. Rude, opinionated, pushy, loud, fast-talking, sarcastic, wiseass. But what people don’t understand is, what’s rude to the rest of the country is polite to us and vice versa. Because, if I go to a pizza place, and like, 'Gimme a slice.' – That’s polite. Because you’re not tryin’ to hold the line. There’s a line. You’re not tryin’ to slow… If you go into a pizza place like, 'Hi, how are you? You must be hot.' That’s rude. You know what I’m sayin’?"
Colin Quinn, The New York Story

No Room for Romance

"Love" by Robert Indiana (Pixabay)

"There's no room for romance in New York. There's only ambition: more and better, constantly. Until you triumph over the city or the city defeats you." 

Bernardo Hernández, quoted in Humanos y marcianos en Nueva York 

Everyday is an Adventure

"New York is home — that's why I moved back here a year and a half ago. I don't think there's a better city in the world. I love how many strangers I sit next to and how every day is an adventure, whether it's culinary or the weather."
Olivia Wilde, NY Daily News

Provider and Breaker

"New York is both the provider - and breaker - of what you want, what you need, and whatever direction you’re in."
Colin King, OliverPeoples.com

No Such Thing as Normal

"New York is such a vibrant city with so much beauty, I could not resist to explore. I have fallen in love with the fascinating people, the rich culture, the art, the music, and the endless blocks filled with flavors from all over the world. Above all, it is beautiful to me that there is no such thing as 'normal' here. Everyone dances to the beat of their own drum, and it’s perfectly accepted. The city has a refreshing level of freedom of expression and diversity that I absolutely adore."
Rachel Glick, Stonehenge

Upper East Side Money

"On the Upper East Side,  money is never the real story. It's usually just the X that marks the spot for what's buried beneath it."
Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg), Gossip Girl

New York Comeback

"After September 11, the financial crisis of 2008, and even during the pandemic, I chose to remain optimistic about New York’s imminent comeback. No other place has the amount of infrastructure, culture, and everything that city life has to offer. New York will always be one of the greatest places to live. New York is energy!"
Miki Naftali, NaftaliGroup.com

New York Block

"New York is really a series of small towns. A man familiar on one block will be unknown on the next."
Rich Cohen, The Last Pirate of New York

New York Trip

"Introduce you to the new walk, nigga, and the new talk, nigga
That's how we do when we in New York, nigga
Yeah! Yeah! I'm on my New York shit
Every hood love me for my New York skill
I got a lot of money on that New York strip
Gully, rock a scully with a New York fit
Yeah! I'm on my New York shit
Run up in The Tunnel catch a New York vick
O.D.B. reppin' New York sick
Shit, you want the truth, take a New York trip."

Busta Rhymes, New York Shit