Diamonds and Manure

"I've always hated New York. It's too big. It's too dirty. It's too rude. New York is like dropping some diamonds into a two-holer—yes, there are some diamonds in there, but you have to go through a sea of manure to get them."
Joe Tait, Joe Tait

Spiritual Decay

"The eye bends down from the jutting skyscraper-man's material achievement—to gaze in horror on the pawing mess of Broadway at lunchtime and the greasy, muttering squalor of the interior of a subway car—surely the symbol of man's spiritual decay."
William Styron, Selected Letters of William Styron