Patience and Grit

Grand Central Terminal

"Mass hysteria is a terrible force, yet New Yorkers always seem to escape it by some tiny margin: they sit in stalled subways without claustrophobia, they extricate themselves from panic situations by some lucky wisecrack, they meet confusion and congestion with patience and grit--a sort of perpetual muddling through."

E.B. White, Here is New York

Don't Knock New York

Trump Tower

"When people want to knock New York — first of all you shouldn't be doing it, because you have a massive population there — but when you want to knock New York, you've got to go through me. New York is an amazing place with amazing people."
Donald Trump, Bloomberg Politics

Holding You Back

Riverside Park

"Not many things are inaccessible here; the only thing holding you back in New York is really yourself."
A. Sarr, How to Make It in the Music Business

What New Yorkers Know

Morningside Heights

"Shooting in New York is the shiznit, if I may be so bold. It was great. New York is a character. People who live here know that."
Robin Williams, Movieweb

Flashy Bravado

Alphabet City

"I think of cities as personalities. New York is the handsome and unattainable jock. It has a flashy bravado, a swagger. New York will never call you, and when it does, it will forget you the next morning. It’s fickle and self-centered because it can be. New York knows that even if you leave, there’s a million other young, pretty people lining up to move in."
Leigh Giangreco, The Washington Post

No City Comes Close to New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art

"There’s something mesmerizing about New York that has me returning every time. The energy, sights, rhythm — it all reminds me why I study and revere cities. Plus with so many restaurants and cultural spaces, no city comes close to New York."
Jonathan L. Wharton, CT Post

Someplace to Go

West 34th Street

"One of the wonderful things about New York is that no matter what time of day or night, there is always someplace to go."
Harold Robbins, The Adventurers

New York City Apartments

Real estate listings in the Upper West Side

"Searching for apartments in this city without access to your trust fund is impossible. I have no idea how you poors did it."
Charlie Winthrop (Tom Ainsley), How I Met Your Father

Beautiful Day

Riverside Park South

"It was really a beautiful day in New York. One that is always welcome about this time of the year. The summer was coming to a close and New Yorkers had suffered through the hot, humid days that come every year."
Peter Martin Larney, Die and You Die Alone

General Assembly

United Nations Building

"It's a very busy time in New York City 'cause the UN General Assembly is officially underway. Yeah: more than a hundred foreign leaders are in town to address the assembly, while some are just here to pick up a fiancée for 90 days. I love when the UN General Assembly is in session. There's no greater joy than watching the President of Rumania walk into the M&M store. Seriously, when else are you going to spot the President of Latvia holding one of those restaurant buzzers outside of Bubba Bubba Gump Shrimp?"

Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show

Keepin' It Queens

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

"But look at me now, damn, y'all, look at me now
Whatever I do is N.Y., I'm keepin' it Queens 'cause that's my side."
Nas, One Mic, One Gun

Surviving

Medical Examiner's van in Midtown Manhattan

"Isn't that what New York is all about anyway—surviving?"
Carola Lovering, Tell Me Lies

Enchanting City

Gramercy Park

"Before I went to New York, I’d imagined it as a tough, concrete jungle full of skyscrapers. But when I arrived, I discovered the exact opposite. It had tree-lined avenues and beautiful buildings, and not just tall ones. It was completely enchanting."
Tom Conti, The Telegraph

Something Going On

West 42nd Street

"Have I mentioned that I love big cities, and New York most of all? I do. The people, the traffic, the noise, the bars, the restaurants, that indescribable and chronically over-referenced buzz. . . . I love knowing that something is always going on, right around the corner."
Gemma Burgess, Brooklyn Girls

Courage and Determination

National 9/11 Memorial

"New York is truly an extraordinary place. Those of us who have lived here, or visited, or just dreamed of it have always known that. For the rest of the world, September 11 demonstrated it. New Yorkers are extraordinary people. As people around the globe watched the events of the 11th in horror, they drew inspiration from the courage and determination of the people of this great city."
Nancy Pelosi, House Intelligence Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism Field Hearing 

Adventurous Town

Brooklyn Bridge

"New York is an adventurous town, and there are major and minor challenges all the time, which is why I love it. And because we all stick together, that is what makes it a community."
Naomi Watts, Vogue

New York Makes You Better

East 42nd Street

"New York is the city that never sleeps. It's the only place to get better at being you, in this place that doesn't rest; you're always working hard to keep up with this city, and it makes you better."
John Clay III, Playbill

Battle of the Wills

Sixth Avenue

"Walking in New York is a battle of the wills, a balance of aggression and kindness. I'm not saying it's always easy. The occasional 'Watch where you're going, bitch' can, I admit, put a crimp in one's day."
Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot

New York Agenda

Harlem Meer

"Everyone had their own special New York agenda — places and restaurants and dive bars and park benches that made them think: This is why I live here. This is the reason that I pay too much rent for too small a place that I share with two roommates, a mouse, and a water bug the size of Toledo."
Jane L. Rosen, A Shoe Story

Work Harder

Subway workers in the Union Square station

"New York makes you really bust your ass to try to do what you want to do. I always feel like I'm slacking because New York constantly reminds me to work harder."
Zhen Heinemann, New York Theater Review 2007

Authentic Self

One World Trade Center

"It makes me so proud to live here, and to have made a life here. It is not easy to live in New York, but I have a chance at being my most authentic self here; we all do."
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Playbill