Where History is Happening

Manhattan District Attorney's Office

"Look around, look around at how
Lucky we are to be alive right now
History is happening in Manhattan and we
Just happen to be in the greatest city in the world
In the greatest city in the world!"
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

Partner or Lover

"LOVE" by Robert Indiana

"Ask anyone who's lived in New York for an extended period of time, on purpose, and they will testify that New York is the best place in the world. They love New York so much, they actually talk about the city in romantic terms. Like it's a partner. Or a lover."
Erin Clune, How to Leave

Center of a Lot of Things

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain

"New York is more exciting, I guess, than even Paris or London is, for the moment. New York’s the center of something; I don’t know what, really—the center of a lot of things. With all its problems and chaos and craziness, it’s still a great place to live. I can’t see myself living anywhere else."
Robert De Niro, Interview Magazine

Unlikely Encounters

Number 7 train

"It’s such a layer cake of different people constantly crossing paths. It’s not like other kinds of cities where people drive a lot; New York is so compact that we see each other in the subway, on the bus or on the street all the time, and are always having encounters with unlikely people."
Rebecca Miller, The Guardian

Unexpected New York

Union Square sign

"New York is marked by a sense of anything-is-possible discovery. Turn the corner and you may notice the bottom of a street sign decorated with intricate terrazzo, or a small sign for a private cemetery in the East Village. Here, the unexpected will always find you, but if you take time to appreciate the expected, you may find it’s the least expected of all."
Isabel Slone, The Toronto Star

Greatest and Lowest

Fifth Avenue

"New York is a city of the greatest and the lowest, and all you gotta remember is that they exist side by side, about five feet from each other."
Haughton Murphy, Murder Takes a Partner

Spring Rain

Lerner Hall at Columbia University

"A spring rain in New York is like no other. When it's over, you feel as though your troubles were washed away."
Ronald Higgins, Maggie, I Love You

New Yorker

The New Yorker Hotel

"Please don't call me an American. I'm a New Yorker."
Anonymous, quoted by Overheard in New York

Lost in New York

Lower East Side

"The thing about New York is, just think it and find out where it is because there is literally anything you could possibly want to do here. I would say get lost—that’s the main thing. Go out, get a bike and just decide that you’re going to spend three hours exploring. I guarantee you you’re going to find food, shops, people, experiences that you weren’t expecting but are going to love."
Josh Groban, NYCGo.com

Atom Bomb

 

"New York is so blasé; you could set off an atom bomb and no one would react."

Alan Rogers, InfoWorld

Orgy of Irishness

Spectators at the St. Patrick's Day Parade

"Not even Dublin celebrates St Patrick's Day like it is celebrated in New York, where everyday life comes to a halt to honour an obscure trans-Atlantic saint who, although a Welshman, inspires an orgy of Irishness."
Damien Enright, A Place Near Heaven

Never Listening

Penn Station

"People in New York never really listened to anyone else; they just waited for a break in the action so they could start to speak, push off with their own boat into the slipstream of talk."

Anna Quindlen, Alternate Side

Beautiful and Amazing

Greenacre Park

"You can live in New York your entire life and feel like nothing will surprise you—you've seen it all. And then one day you come across something you never knew was there, something beautiful and amazing that can't possibly exist in New York City, but there it is, right in front you, and you can only marvel at it."
Nick Santora, Fifteen Digits

Cooler Than Thou

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch

"If Paris is your stuffy grandmother, then New York is your cooler-than-thou older sibling, the one who lets you break curfew but also hardly acknowledges your existence."
Marina Khorosh, Vogue Magazine

Great for the Young

The Cooper Union

"Everyone moves to New York wanting it to be the ideal of what they grew up with. New York is always in flux, so I don’t think anyone gets what they came for. But it also encourages people to change it themselves. New York is great when you’re young and that will always be true."
Scott Ewalt, Ponyboy Magazine

Magical Feeling

Battery Park

"When you live in New York City, there's a magical feeling you get whenever you run up the steps out of the subway, spin through a revolving door out of your office building at the end of a long day, push open a window to let in the spring scent of blossoms. There's a split second where the city hits you, greets you, slobbers a kiss on your face like a puppy."
Kate Spencer, In a New York Minute

New York 'Tude

Sign in Downtown Manhattan

"New York I thought I knew before moving here. I’d played here and done a lot of work here. But moving was a big shock. I didn’t know there would be so much hassle on a day-to-day basis. It doesn’t take long for me to get what a friend of mine calls a ‘tude’--like attitude, New York style. It’s not quite a bitchiness, but a crankiness, a short fuse."
Connie Chung, Los Angeles Times

Small World

Riverside Drive and West 72nd

"New York is a big city, obviously, but the Upper West Side is a small world."
Abbi Waxman, Adult Assembly Required

Pacing New York

East River Park

"New York needs to be paced, to be left and returned to, like a lover who asks too much. And when you do return, with that unfailing excitement you cross the Henry Hudson Bridge and realize you are back. To return to New York is to repossess it. After a year abroad or a day in the country, you hungrily reclaim the city, and the city responds, recharging you, awaiting your deepest pleasure."
Stephen Brook, New York Days, New York Nights

Never Boring

"New York is very upfront about what it is. It's sexy. It's dangerous. It's powerful. It's seedy. It's funny. It's crazy. And it's never boring.''
Mariel Hemingway, The Roanoke Times

Entire World

The Unisphere

"NYC was a city where you could just sink into the background and watch the world interact in the most magical and mysterious ways that there were. It was like the entire world converged on New York City, and it all blended together. The rich and poor, native and foreigners, the seen and the unseen. It had everything a people-watcher could want."

Lexy Timms, Unknown Identity

Grade School Teacher

PS 2 The Meyer London School

"Hollywood was the grade school teacher who started you off with an 'A' until you failed. New York was the one who gave you an 'F' until you proved you deserved better."
Sloane Crosley, The Clasp

Paired Off

Sarah D. Roosevelt Park

"When did everybody stop smoking? When did everybody pair off? This used to be the most exciting city in the world, and now it’s nothing but smoking near a fucking open window. New York is over. O-V-E-R. No one’s fun anymore! Whatever happened to fun? I’m so bored I could die."
"Lexi Featherston" (Kristen Johnston), Sex and the City