Twin Towers

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

"The twin towers still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time. They are a part of the city we carry around."
Colson Whitehead, The New York Times

Brooklyn Writer

"As you may have heard, all the writers are in Brooklyn these days. It’s the place to be. You're simply not a writer if you don't live here. Google 'brooklyn writer' and you’ll get, Did you mean: the future of literature as we know it?"
Colson Whitehead, The New York Times

Our Former Selves

Oculus

"We try to fix the city in place, remember it as it was, doing to the city what we would never allow to be done to ourselves. The kid on the uptown No. 1 train, the new arrival stepping out of Grand Central, the jerk at the intersection who doesn't know east from west: those people don't exist anymore, ceased to be a couple of apartments ago, and we wouldn't have it any other way. New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy."
Colson Whitehead, The New York Times

Naked Cities

Naked Cowgirls in Times Square

"There are eight million naked cities in this naked city."
Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York

My New York

Alfred E. Smith Houses and Manhattan Bridge

"The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be? This place multiplies when you're not looking."
Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York

Before

Elizabeth Street

"You're a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now."
Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York

Will Go On

Pier 54

"Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without us."
Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York

Reward and Punishment

Riverside Park South

"This city is reward for all it will enable you to achieve and punishment for all the crimes it will force you to commit."
Colson Whitehead, The Colossus of New York