Too Extreme

Mercer Street

"The first impression of New York is that it is too big, too rich, too dirty, and too poor. Everything is too extreme."
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip

The Real America

Times Square

"Whatever Americans may say about New York, it is the real America: here you have all the heights of American technology and all the smoky delirium of its oppressive, shining life."
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip