On Fire

Engine 47 in Morningside Heights

"New York has always been in charge. When New York is on fire, the world is on fire."
Shaquille O'Neal, New York Post

Big Heart

Third Avenue

"My hometown New York also has a big heart. It doesn't like to see itself in that way, but we do come together when need be, often in moments of crisis."
Anthony Bourdain, Vogue Magazine

Money Makin' Manhattan

Financial District

"The borough of Manhattan was made for business. It resides in the heart of New York, and that's how it got its name, Money Makin' Manhattan."
B. Mac, It Was All a Dream

Refusing to Say Goodbye

Buildings in Midtown Manhattan

"New York is still here, but it is also not. For those of us who have remained, the task seems to fall somewhere between caretaking — we will order pickup and takeout from the places that have served us so well, we will do our shopping for our neighbors—  and refusing to let go. We ain't going nowhere. New York in this moment may be saying goodbye to us, but we refuse to say goodbye to New York."
Glynnis MacNicol, The Best American Travel Writing 2021

Christmas in New York

Christmas decorations on Roosevelt Island

"Santaland is ready to debut
But Macy's is so packed you can't get through
The kids are lined up everywhere
Spilling out into the Square
Suddenly it's Christmas in New York."
Lea Michele, Christmas in New York

New York at Christmastime

NYSE Christmas Tree

"I don't know why people say New York is magical at Christmastime. It's just a sea of women in black with seasonal affective disorder and tourists who won't get out of my fucking way."
Anonymous, via Overheard in New York

Alive and Enriched

Greenwich Street

"New York is the first place that I felt at home. It just makes sense to me. The people make sense. I make sense to myself. I feel alive there and enriched with every step. I love New York."
Bellamy Young, BELLA New York Magazine

Freedom and Responsibility

Jane's Carousel

"New York provides young people with an enormous amount of responsibility and enormous amount of freedom, in comparison to growing up elsewhere. You're not limited to access to things by vehicles, or by getting moved around by your parents, if you're in the suburbs, hypothetically. There is full access to everything, really, that you could fill your every day with something new at that age. So I think that that's really what New York was, was this large amount of freedom and a large amount of responsibility." Matthew Daddario, Flaunt

Originally from New York City

Court Square subway station

"I'm originally from New York City. What does that mean? Well, it means that I’m very particular about my bagels. Very particular. And my pizza. It means I didn’t get my driver’s license till I was 22, because who needs a car when you have the subway? And when somebody says 'the city,' they’re obviously referring to New York City—I don’t care if you are in California, New York is obviously where you are headed this weekend if you said you are going to a club in the city."
Freida McFadden, Female First

Rich New Yorker

JP Morgan's study

"I'm going to be a New Yorker and a rich one, which is the only kind to be."
Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), A Haunting in Venice

Capital of the World

United Nations Way

"For all its problems, it’s still the capital of the world. You can’t get away from it. You can’t get tougher and smarter and richer and glossier than you can here. It isn’t going to happen in Poughkeepsie."
Cindy Adams, The Guardian

Limited Life

Times Square subway station

"I think New York is good for me in that my life is very limited. I have to take my kids to school, I do a very small amount of things, I don’t have adventures. If I was doing that in some rural village in England, I would feel that my subject is very small, whereas in New York, even though I walk three blocks, there’s an amazing amount of people in those three blocks, and an amazing amount of things to see. Just getting on the subway is useful to me. I’m lucky, the world comes to me. I don’t have to do much."
Zadie Smith, The Tulane Hullabaloo

New York and the Rest of the World

Duke Ellington Memorial

"You don't have to be born in New York to be a New Yorker! Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein, two of the most representative composers of the city, were born in other states, just like a great number of its inhabitants. To be a New Yorker is more like a mental state—one of many ways to act, an attitude towards life and the rest of the world. Many people say the planet is divided in two: New York and the rest of the world."
Paquito D'Rivera, Letters to Yeyito

On the Streets

Lower East Side

"New York is a town where you spend a lot of time out on the streets, going from one place to another. You’re out there, and you just have to have a little bit kind of a protective layer over yourself, a little bit of a thicker skin to deal with lots of people coming your way."
Michael Imperioli, Variety

What New Yorkers Love

Harlem Meer

"New Yorkers love their home. They love the culture and the excitement, the bright life in a big city. They love the opera and the luxury of a well-spoken play. They love the park in its seasons—ice skating in winter and walks through great lakes of leaves in the fall, and long naps in the sunshine of the park on spring afternoons."
Jenna-Clare Allen, As the Spark Flies Upwards

City of Shining Lights

Baruch Way

"New York is a city of shining lights which attracts anyone with a modicum of talent wanting to break into the big time."
Danny Griffiths, Metro

Incredible Parties

Velvet rope in Times Square

"New York is a fabulous lady who gives incredible parties. You're never invited, but you know they're there, and you know that once you get inside, it's going to be great."
Thomas Adcock, Drown All the Dogs

Open Arms

Statue of Liberty

"New York always was, and always will be, a city with open arms."
Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh), Blue Bloods

We Ain't Playin'

Court in Downtown Manhattan

"We're hunters, we take pride in airin' our prey out
Leavin 'em laid out, dead, in just a sport
Cause we ain't playin' up here in New York."

DJ Khaled, New York

Becoming a Movie Star

Lucille Lortel Playwrights' Sidewalk

"You know what small-town folk think of the big city. To them, moving to New York is like becoming a movie star."
Nicki Night, His Love Lesson

Surprising New York

Flower District

"New York is very user-friendly if you don’t want to be in a car all the time. It can also provide you with surprises because it’s so compressed—if you walk around, you just find things."
Susan Sarandon, Interview Magazine