Open Arms

Statue of Liberty

"New York always was, and always will be, a city with open arms."
Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh), Blue Bloods

New York Cliché

Statue of Liberty

"New York is also, to some extent, a cliché. Tourists descend — 66.6 million in 2019 alone — like fruit flies on an overripe banana for a chance to visit its world-class museums, eat its renowned cuisine and walk the same streets immortalized in gritty Martin Scorsese films (or dizzy Nora Ephron romcoms)."

Isabel Slone, The Star

New World

East Coast Memorial and Statue of Liberty

"The Statue of Liberty, rising from her island and lifting her torch, left Alma breathless with wonder. Yet even this was eclipsed by the Manhattan skyline. Countless buildings reached higher than the tallest cathedral spires of Old Europe. The New World glimmered like a miracle."
Mary Sharratt, Ecstacy

We Have Enough

Statue of Liberty and Staten Island Ferry

"It is a fact that New York is the only city on earth today that is not out of luck, not in a state of siege, not in the clutch of evil invaders, not in tragic travail and shortage and exhaustion fighting for its life! The only very great metropolis left in a position to have everything that you expect of a great metropolis, unless it is Rio de Janeiro which I do not know … We have talent enough, money enough, liberty enough. No other city has; it is up to us."
Glenway Wescott, A Visit to Priapus and Other Stories

The Beauty of New York

Statue of Liberty

"Maybe New York is the only place where no one cares where you come from. You just have to deliver. And that’s the beauty of New York."
Alexei Ratmansky, Gothamist

Wretched Refuse

The Immigrants statue in Battery Park

"One thing I love about living in New York is it's every different type of person piled one on top of the other. I am for open immigration, but that sign we have in the front of the Statue of Liberty, 'Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' Can't we just say, 'Hey, the door's open. We'll take whoever you got.' Do we have to specify 'The wretched refuse?'"
Jerry Seinfeld, Seinlanguage