Crazy in Love

Romeo and Juliet statue

"I love New York City. I am so crazy in love with it, so excited on the occasions when I get to return to it from my home upstate, even just for brief work-related appointments on frigid winter afternoons, that I almost can’t see straight."
Sari Botton, Never Can Say Goodbye

Leaving New York City

Riverside Park

"Who doesn’t think about leaving New York City at least once a day? It’s like the house in Poltergeist: the house wants you to leave, but you keep fighting it. Living in New York is great, but it's awful too."
Jason Diamond, Never Can Say Goodbye

New York Is Everything You've Heard It Is

"New York is a vibrant city. It’s everything you’ve heard it is. It’s crazy, it’s horrible, it’s magnificent, it’s beautiful. It’s hard to become a real grown-up in, because it really lends itself to a good time. It’s a real live wire, hard to leave, like a living, breathing entity in your life."
Whoopi Goldberg, Never Can Say Goodbye

Mama

North Williamsburg

"To me, New York is Mama. Every time I've ever knocked on its door—no matter what time of day, no matter what condition I've found myself—New York City opens to me. Smacks me upside the head a little bit on my way in, like, 'What's the matter with you now, you big stupid dummy?' but always lets me in. Clears a space for me. Finds a bed for me. Makes room at the table."
Elizabeth Gilbert, Never Can Say Goodbye

Disappeared and Found

"I discovered this was the best thing about New York: you could run away every day if you wanted to and still find yourself in a newly incarnated version of the city. You never had to be the same person. You could disappear and be found all at once."
Patricia Engel, Never Can Say Goodbye

Native Tongue

"I knew that New York City was my spiritual home from the age of twelve. I felt territorial from the first moment I glimpsed the city. The place knew who I was without me having to explain myself. I felt as if I'd been struggling to speak a foreign language my whole life and unexpectedly found myself dropped into the country of my native tongue."
Rosanne Cash, Never Can Say Goodbye

One of Us

Book Culture

"Look, you know that New York City is tough—and I'm sure that any number of people with fewer advantages than this affluent white male could tell you just how tough it can be—but at the heart of it is an idea that's as American as it gets: If you can put up with this fucking town, then whatever else you are, you're one of us."
Owen King, Never Can Say Goodbye

Million Things, Million People

Gramercy Theatre

"New York City is a place where there are always a million exciting things to do at any given moment, and a million other people who are doing them at the exact same moment as you are."
Adam Sternbergh, Never Can Say Goodbye

Winston Churchill

East 25th

"To paraphrase Winston Churchill's famous observation about democracy: New York City is the worst place in the world to live, except for all the others."
Adam Sternbergh, Never Can Say Goodbye

Idea of New York

West 24th

"Everyone who moves to New York from another place comes at least in part because they're chasing after an idea of 'New York.' This New York is not a place you move to; you actually arrive with it already in your mind."
Adam Sternbergh, Never Can Say Goodbye

Never-Completed Masterwork

Times Square

"That is what New York is, a never-completed masterwork, torn down even as it is resurrected, each minute populated by a different swarm of humanity streaming in and out."
Colin Harrison, Never Can Say Goodbye

Two Kinds of New Yorkers

Williamsburg Bridge

"There are two kinds of New Yorkers, the ones who could never leave and the other ones."
Julie Klam, Never Can Say Goodbye