Unbelievable City

Downtown Manhattan

"New York is an unbelievable city, it really is. You can find everything here, anytime, all the time. Except a cab."
Chloe Wilkox, Rocked by a Vampire

World Metaphor

East Village (art by Bunny M)

"New York is the metaphor for the world. It is the most beautiful and the most fetid city alive."
Giovanni Uminici, Giovanni Uminici: My New York

New York Mayor for President

Downtown Manhattan

"I have a prediction. I think Mayor Adams is going to be our fourth straight New York mayor who decides to run for president. Calling it now. I love that a New York mayor thinks that other people in this country come here to visit and when they leave they think, ‘You know who should be in charge here? They can't handle trash pickup but I'd love to see what they do with the U.S. military.'"
Seth Meyers, American Museum of Natural History Gala

Masterpiece

Downtown Manhattan

"New York is a work of art in and of itself. It’s a masterpiece that shouldn’t make sense, yet somehow, it does."
Jacqueline E. Smith, Once Upon A Times Square

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

Best and Worst

Sign in Downtown Manhattan

"The best thing about New York is everything you can do here. The worst is everything you can't do here."
Jason Epstein, New York Magazine

Scaffolding

Building in downtown Manhattan

"The scaffolding is everywhere. I think New York would fall down without it."
Jon Reiner, The Man Who Couldn't Eat

Idyllic Unattainability

Downtown Manhattan seen from Roosevelt Island

"New York is unapologetic and doesn't wait for anyone. It's a city that creates and a city that happens. New York doesn't need anything or anyone and perhaps that's exactly why you still crave it so much, because of its idyllic unattainability."
Laura Steiner, The Huff Post

Old New York

Parking lot in downtown Manhattan

"I have no nostalgia for old New York, with its hookers, heroin addicts, and constant threat of robbery or rape. I'm happy to sacrifice fast food and hardcover books for general personal safety, which I guess makes me about as uncool as they come."
Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Everything is Amplified

Trash cans in downtown Manhattan

"Everything in New York is amplified: the traffic, the wealth, even the garbage smells. In New York, I am both exactly the person I am supposed to be and a person I don’t recognize. New York is my favourite place in the entire world."
Isabel Slone, Toronto Star

No Prejudice

Downtown Manhattan

"New York is a melting pot. In my neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, the kids were black, Hispanic, Irish, Italian, Greek and Jewish, and there was no prejudice. They all beat me up on the way to school."
Richard Belzer, quoted in The New York Times