Strongest Race in the World

"I like New York because it is the biggest city of the world, and because it is inhabited by the strongest race in the world—the only one which has succeeded in organizing itself since the War; the only one which is not living on a past reputation; the only one, along with Italy, which does not demolish, but knows, on the contrary, how to construct." 
Paul Morand, New York

Night is Abolished

Third Avenue

"Night is abolished. . . .We have seen restaurants full at dawn— with people who will be at work four hours later. New York is a town that never halts, never slacks off. Subways and street-cars run up and down all night long, twenty-four hours a day. . . . Everything goes fast. . . .New York is a perpetual thunderstorm."
Paul Morand, Mirror for Gotham

Violence

East 56th

"New York's supreme beauty, its truly unique quality, is its violence. Violence gives it nobility, excuses it, makes its vulgarity forgettable. For New York is vulgar; it is stronger, richer, newer than anything you like, but it is common."
Paul Morand, quoted in Mirror for Gotham

Town of Contrasts

"A town of contrasts, puritan and libertine; the two-sided picture of a well-policed America and a savage continent, of East and West; a few yards from the luxury of Fifth Avenue and one is in battered and dirty Eighth Avenue. New York is the symbol of America, and half of its population is foreign; it is a center of Anglo-Saxon culture, speaking Yiddish; . . . after making you rich in a week, it ruins you in one morning."
Paul Morand, Mirror for Gotham

Heart of Nylon

Third Avenue

"New York, city with a heart of nylon."

Paul Morand, quoted in People in Cities

Warmest Moment

"If the planet grows cold, this city will nevertheless have been mankind's warmest moment."
Paul Morand, quoted in New York: Civic Exploitation

Devouring City

Greenwich St.

"New York devours people, leaving merely the husks; then it kills them."
Paul Morand, New York

Endless Summer

Times Square

"In Forty-second Street it is a glowing summer afternoon all night: one might almost wear white trousers and straw hat."

Paul Morand, New York