Island with a Moat

"New York is like an island with a moat around it and the drawbridge has been pulled up."
Vijay Dandapani, The New York Times

Alive City

The High Line (Pixabay)

"Whilst others may dislike the crammed buildings, the sirens and utter confusion of Times Square, to me New York is more alive than any city I’ve been to. And if the heart of New York City is its people — a heart that thumps, pounds and palpitates with an astounding rhythm — then its femoral artery is the High Line."
Thomas Blythe, Port Magazine

Love Story

Oculus

"Me and New York would go out and get drunk and talk about books and act like we were more sophisticated than we were and pretend we had never lived in the suburbs of Cleveland and be like, 'God, I can’t believe I got lucky enough to find you.' I never really fell out of love with New York."
Devin Friedman, Medium

Peoria, New York, Los Angeles

"I left Peoria for New York because New York was cheerier. Los Angeles is cheerier than New York. L.A. is to New York as New York is to Peoria."
Betty Friedan, Interviews with Betty Friedan

Doing Everything Quickly

Wall Street subway station (Pixabay)

"I'm from New York. I do everything quickly. If I had to drive to my own execution, I'd be in the left lane, passing everyone in order to get there as soon as possible."
Rick Redner, I Left My Prostate in san Francisco

Spontaneity

"The thing that’s so incredible about living in New York is that spontaneity and that ability to make things happen, whether it’s socially or artistically or whatever it is that’s filled with inspiration. And I think that that’s just part of the soul of New York and even in these difficult times, I don’t think that that will really go away."

Natalie Krinsky, Flickering Myth

Staten Island Ferry

Staten Island Ferry (Pixabay)

"The Staten Island Ferry is the busiest passenger ferry in the world, with almost 25 million riders a year. By my own unofficial calculations, it also holds the record for “Most Exposed Public Restrooms” (somehow designed so that any casual passersby can see the entire bathroom, all of the stalls, and every single drag queen fixing her makeup in the mirror), as well as the record for 'Most Dead-Eyed Businessmen Staring at the Sea Contemplating Whether to End It.'"
Colin Jost, A Very Punchable Face

Magical Place

"Harlem was always a magical place for me."
Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold

Huge City, Small Town

"New York is a huge city, but a small town."
Sharleen Cooper Cohen, Love, Sex and Money

Masterful

"New York is an endless space. A work of art about vice, emptiness, devastation and madness. Masterful." 
Manolo Sicart, Humanos y marcianos en Nueva York II

Fitting In

"Sweetie, listen, all you did was pass out, puke and pee in your pants. You were in Central Park. You fit right in."
Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), The Nanny

"New York is a tough place. After 9/11, New York bounced back. After Hurricane Sandy, New York bounced back. After the devastating first wave of Covid, too. The point is: this city keeps coming back and that’s what makes it the greatest city in the world."
Trevor Noah, The Daily Show

Fastest Runner

"New York is a dramatic city. It's high drama, it's high energy. I don't think there is a place that runs faster."
Zac Posen, New York Fashion

True Legacy

"The care that the city’s residents have extended to one another throughout a pandemic and countless protests is the city’s true legacy, and it’s one that I hope New Yorkers—leavers and stayers alike—will carry with us, no matter where our journeys take us."
Emma Specter, Vogue

Anything is Possible

"Love is possible. Anything is possible. This is New York."
Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Sex and the City

Change in New York

Hudson Yards (Pixabay)

"New York is a place that rapidly adopts, and normalizes, change. Things don’t exist one day and then, after a week, it feels like they’ve been around forever."

Jorge Colombo, The New Yorker

Tired of Life

"Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life."
Robert Moses, quoted in The Little Red Book of New York Wisdom

Wide-Open Doors

Statue of Liberty (Pixabay)

"I will always love New York for welcoming me with open arms and for being the only place in the world with as much opportunity available, especially for new arrivals. Every day, New York offers proof of the power and value in wide-open doors."
Peter Lawrence, quoted in The Points Guy

Created for Ambition

"New York was created for ambition and that's why I'm here."
 Paulina Porizkova, quoted in The Sun Sentinel

Universe Itself

Hayden Planetarium (Wikimedia Commons)

"To New Yorkers (and many others who dream about migrating there) this city is not only the center of the Solar System and the Milky Way but the Universe itself, with all of the billions of galaxies and innumerable black holes rotating around Manhattan."
Oleg Svet, The Divine Madness

Inmortal City

"I take it really personally when I see articles saying, 'New York is dead.' It’s New York City. New York will never ever be dead. New York is the most resilient city and it always prevails."
Nicky Hilton, The New York Post