Wondrous Mixture

"New York is such a wondrous mixture of colors, classes, dress, and activity (I have seen many cities more beautiful and more exotic, but none more diverse)."

Stephen Jay Gould, Dinosaur in a Haystack

Keep Going

"New Yorkers can be blunt. They're very honest. They're rather unfazed by crazy situations that would shock other people, including me sometimes shouting nonsense on the street. But despite all of the personal, social, and economic challenges, we maintain a sense of humor and a self-awareness that life is short and absurd and sometimes horrifying and unjust. And yet you just have to keep going."
Billy Eichner, InStyle

Making Light

Midtown Manhattan (Pixabay)

"It's never truly dark in New York. All the dark in New York is manmade . The only thing people do out here is make light."
Wynette A. Hoffman, Love & Benjamins

A Pain in the Ass and a Gift

"New York is a pain in the ass because there are so many of us walking around, bumping into each other, stealing each other's taxis. But it's also a gift. Because none of those people are faceless. Those thousand people you walk past every day? Every single one of them is on a journey. Every one of them simply wants to be loved and needed."
Elvis Duran, Where Do i Begin?

Very Special Experience

"All one needs to really explore New York is a few days to stay, a pocketful of debit and credit cards, and the open-mindedness to understand what it really means to be a world class city. Warts and all — New York is a very special experience."
Lindon Dodd, News and Tribune

New York Ain't Always What It Seems

"New York, New York, big city of dreams
And everything in New York ain't always what it seems
You might get fooled if you come from outta town
But I'm down by law, and I'm from Tha Dogg Pound."
Snoop Dogg, New York, New York

Defining City

 

Midtown Manhattan (Pixabay)

"New York is a defining city. It’s the most iconic place to be simultaneously anonymous and on top of the world."
Shanna Wilson, Washington Independent Review of Books

Cardinal Rule

"There’s one cardinal rule: When the city goes into a crisis you stay, you help your neighbors, you support your local shops, you clean up your block, you get tight with the cops, the firemen, the bus drivers. You support each other. That’s what makes you a New Yorker. You pay those dues."

Christopher McHale, Medium

Running a Game

"This is New York. I work in the New York people business. Everyone here is running a game. Everyone here needs to score. Everyone here is husling. Everyone here wants something--money, power, image, love."
Neff (Alexis Floyd), Inventing Anna 

Variety

"What I love about New York is that it just provides so much variety. So many different kinds of encounters happen in a single day, even just passing on the street or riding the subway."
Jennifer Egan, Origins of a Story

City Lover

"Love" by Robert Indiana (Pixabay)

"Whether you're new to your relationship, new to the city, or an old pro at both, New York is there to seduce, excite, console, and entertain."
Caitlin Leffel, Jacob Lehman, In Love in New York

Wealth and Success

"Nowadays New York is really just a homage to wealth and success – but without any contrast. If you live in Manhattan, you have to be very wealthy. You can't live on the Lower East Side any more and not be making $200,000 a year. New York's DIY streak and its irreverent, impulsive, rulebreaking attitude have slowly been eradicated, and that's sad."
Huey Morgan,  Huey Morgan's Rebel Heroes

No One is an Outsider

"Every New Yorker interacts with a brilliant array of cultures and unique kinds of people. No matter how homogenous some may try to make their particular enclave, the diversity of the city permeates every pore. There's no private property on the sidewalks and streets. And when everyone you pass is a stranger, no one is an outsider."
Mark Fedeli, Tablet Hotels Magazine

Desire to Achieve

"What you have in New York is this incredible desire to exceed, which certainly stimulates people to achievement. The complexity of the city, the variety of opportunities, and the nature of its population is so complicated you could say it’s the worst place on Earth or the best."

Milton Glaser, Document Journal

My Place

"I spent a bunch of time in New York recently, and then I was when I was there, I was like, My god, how could I forget? This is my place!"
Johanna Samuels, Talk House

Supplementary Vitamin

"Every facility is inadequate--the hospitals and schools and playgrounds are overcrowded, the express highways are feverish, the unimproved highways and bridges are bottlenecks; there is not enough air and not enough light, and there is usually either too much heat or too little. But the city makes up for its hazards and deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin--the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled."
E.B. White, Here is New York

Encounters with Strangers

"One of the great things about living in New York is that you meet so many strangers – and I love encounters with strangers. Wait, that sounds odd. What I mean is I love meeting people and hearing their stories.”
Rami Malek, The Guardian

Everyone Fits in Somewhere

"I love New York because it has everything. Just walking down the street in New York is an education. For me, there is something magical about just wondering aimlessly through the city, which I tend to do probably more than I should. And because New York has everything, it doesn't have to pretend to be anything, so everyone fits in somewhere. Even Rudy Giuliami seems less weird in New York. You know, I think right now if New York could talk to us, it would probably say: 'Hey, don't worry about me. I'm gonna be fine. I'm the greatest city in the world.'"
Jerry Zucker, NYC next 

Anything is Possble

"You're a New Yorker now. We both are. And for a New Yorker, anything is possible."
Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), The Gilded Age

Tremendous City

"New York is a tremendous city that teaches you a lot about yourself and a lot about how you want it."
Philip Winchester, Strike Back Crib