New York quotations
Image Factory (South)
Yorkers?
Grace McGarvie
"Image Factory (South)" wrote:
> Does anyone know of any good, positive! quotes about New York or New
> Yorkers?
HERE IS MY COLLECTION positive and negative:
NEW YORK
Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank
robbery has just taken place. Johnny Carson
New York . . . that unnatural city where every one is an exile, none
more so than the American. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A marriage, to be happy, needs an exterior threat. New York provides
that threat. Garrison Keillor
New York: the only city where people make radio requests like "This is
for Tina - I'm sorry I stabbed you." Carol Leifer
New York now leads the world's great cities in the number of people
around whom you shouldn't make a sudden move. David Letterman
New York is simply inconceivably rich--richer than all the capitals of
Europe put together, with all the lesser towns of America, save perhaps
one or two, thrown in for good measure. Is wealth merely flamboyant and
stupid? Not necessarily. It may also be luxurious and beautiful.
There are more beautiful things in New York, in all probability, than in
Paris and London combined--and I am not forgetting beautiful buildings.
Is the new Telephone Building a crib from the Germans? Then where is
the match for it in Berlin? Henry Louis Mencken
It costs a great deal of money, but New York is filled with people who
seem to have it. Are they rooked? I am inclined to doubt it. They pay
huge prices, and out of those huge prices come huge profits, but they
actually get something for their money. They get a kind of luxury that
is unobtainable in Europe, save as a sort of miracle: the luxury of
being surrounded by perfect and unobtrusive slaves, human and
mechanical. Nor is all that luxury for the body alone. There were more
orchestra concerts in New York last winter than in Berlin. The town has
more theaters, and better ones, than a dozen Londons. It has at least
five times as many good restaurants as Paris. It has at more night
clubs, cabarets and other such gilded dens than hell itself. Henry
Louis Mencken
As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll
live through the night. Dorothy Parker
I do not go outdoors. Not more than I have to. As far as I'm concerned,
the whole point of living in New York City is indoors. You want
greenery? Order the spinach. David Rakoff
When its 100 degrees in New York, it's 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30
degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it's still 72. However, there are 6
million interesting people in New York, and 72 in Los Angeles. Neil
Simon
New York is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to die there.
Anonymous
New York is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
Proverb
A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.
New York Proverb
-- Proverbs:Laughter is the best medicine. Everybody laughs in the same
language. Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.
He who laughs last, laughs best. In the beginning God made a man and a
woman and set them on earth. Then the man and woman looked at each other
and burst out laughing.(African) That day is lost on which one has not
laughed.(French) Those who tickle themselves may laugh when they
please.(German) Time spent laughing is time spent with the
gods.(Japanese) When the mouse laughs at the cat there is a hole nearby.
(Nigerian) What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. (Yiddish)
Donna L. Bridges
<In9o7.151$t16.3...@typhoon2.gnilink.net> "Image Factory \(South\)"
<factor...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Does anyone know of any good, positive! quotes about New York or New
>Yorkers?
Ummm, here's some, about NY or NY-ish, but, not at all sorted ... and,
also, umm, not all I have, ... uh, sorry. <G> Caught me in a state ...
of partial organization.
"Let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic
energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's reading, it would
be a Twinkie 35 feet long, weighing approximately 600 lbs." - Dr. Egon
Spengler, GHOSTBUSTERS [1984]
"As a duly designated representative of the City, County & State of
New York, I order you to cease any & all supernatural activities &
return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient
parallel dimension." - Ray Stantz, GHOSTBUSTERS
"Look, lady, it's been ten minutes since you called us. The murderer,
that is if there is a murderer, could be in Brooklyn by now - that is,
if anybody *wants* to be in in Brooklyn." - Lt. Mike Brent, THE MAD
MISS MANTON [1938]
"Yeah, I like it, too. I mean it's not Brooklyn, New York. It's not
the City of Homes and Churches and ... " - Marcellus Washburn
"Brooklyn? Marce, this isn't even Dubuque!" - Harold Hill THE MUSIC
MAN [1962]
"Bring Allan Swann to Brooklyn?" - Benjy, MY FAVORITE YEAR [1982]
"Look at this! Baby born with two heads ... must be from Brooklyn." -
Racetrack, NEWSIES [1992]
"Oh, and Leon, don't be the nice, sweet guy from Brooklyn on this one.
Do what the NRA does." - A. J. MacInerney, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT
[1995]
"Yeah, I'm from Brooklyn." - Harry Angel, ANGEL HEART [1987]
"I don't know from suicide, y'know. Where I grew up in Brooklyn we
were too unhappy to commit suicide." - Clifford, CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS
[1989]
"Ah! Some love Paris & some Purdue. But love is an archer with a low
IQ A bold bad bowman & innocent of pity. So I'm in love with New York
City." - Phyllis McGinley, "A Kind of Love Letter to New York" (1954)
"This is New York & there's no law against being annoying." - William
Kunstler, lawyer, 1994
"Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft." -
Mary Schmich
"I'm in a New York state of mind." - Billy Joel
"As only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll
live through the night." - Dorothy Parker, Esquire, November 1964
"I learned a lot of lessons awful quick & now I'm telling you that
they were not the nice kind." - Jim Croce, "New York's Not My Home"
"You're wearing brown. In New York we wear black. And that's only
until something darker comes along." - Christine Baranski's character
in WELCOME TO NEW YORK
"New York, New York: a hell of a town. The Bronx is up & the battery's
down. The people ride in a hole in the ground. New York, New York -
it's a hell of a town!" - Betty Comden and Adolph Green
"Effort per se had no dignity against the mere bounty of those days in
New York ... a depreciatory word was found for it: a successful
programme became a racket - I was in the literary racket." - F. Scott
Fitzgerald, "My Lost City"
"As the toiler must live in the city's belly, so I was compelled to
live in its disordered mind." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, "My Lost City"
"I love New York on summer afternoons when everyone's away. There's
something very sensuous about it - overripe, as if all sorts of funny
fruits were going to fall into your hands." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, THE
GREAT GATSBY
"It's not New York any more. Nobody wants to walk around here. Plus,
the busses suck." - Stone, BRIMSTONE [1998]
"Paris. New York. Milan. Lawndale." - Daria, DARIA [1997]
"New York, New York. The town so nice, they named it twice." - Garrett
Miller, "Extreme Ghostbusters" (1997)
"Whoa! You can't just find garbage lying in the streets of Manhattan!"
- Mayor of New New York City, "Futurama" (1999)
"I pray that on the march to New York, Washington attacks us. I'll
turn on him & crush him in one blow. Then let the French try to save
him." - General Clinton, "George Washington" (1984)
"This isn't like New York, where you open the door & there's hundreds
of people of all sizes, shapes & perversions!" - Graham JUST THE TEN
OF US [1988]
"Is New York such a labyrinth? I thought it was all straight up & down
like Fifth Avenue. All the cross streets numbered & big honest labels
on everything." - Ellen Olenska, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE [1993]
"Something is amiss. I don't smell bacon. Now, isn't there a law in
the state of New York where it can't be called breakfast unless
there's bacon or sausage or some sort of fried meat?" - Michael
Wiseman NOW & AGAIN [1999]
"Alvy, you're incapable of enjoying life, you know that? I mean you're
like New York City. You're just this person. You're like this island
unto yourself." - Annie Hall ANNIE HALL [1977]
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're
left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us
that way sometimes and I live here." - Alvy Singer ANNIE HALL [1977]
"I've got a map of New York City just like that." - Mulder X-F
"Ladies and gentlemen, it might interest you to know that the City of
New York has agreed to pay for your release." - Mr. Blue, THE TAKING
OF PELHAM 1 2 3" [1974]
"Look out New York City, cause here I come and I ain't never leavin'!
Whooo!" - Linda Lue Linden THE THING CALLED LOVE [1993]
"Are you saying that nobody in New York will work with me?" - Michael
Dorsey, TOOTSIE [1982]
"Would you be interested in a subscription to the New York Times?" -
Telemarketer, SEINFELD [1990]
"Why are you so starstruck? In New York, we lived next door to the man
who won the Nobel Prize in physics." - Gene Bergman, SOMETHING WILDER
[1994]
"Have you ever been to a meeting of the New York Legislature? Everyone
speaks very loud, and very fast, and nobody listens to anybody else,
with the result that nothing ever gets done. I beg the Congress's
pardon." - Lewis Morris, 1776 [1972]
"Don't touch my uncle! He is the genius of my family. He used to make
the tip of the bomb, you know? That finds New York or Washington?" -
Lev Andropov, ARMAGEDDON [1998]
"I hate my job... I hate shopping... I hate New York in June. How
about you?" - Rose Shelton, BIG BUSINESS [1988]
"There's something about you New York boys that riles my ass. You
don't appreciate the Army, do you?" - Sergeant Toomey, BILOXI BLUES
[1988]
"He always used to say, 'Never do nothing you wouldn't want printed on
the front page of The New York Times.'" - Billie Dawn, BORN YESTERDAY
[1950]
"How about New York?" - Major Strasser, CASABLANCA [1942]
"Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't
advise you to try to invade." - Rick Blaine, CASABLANCA [1942]
"'Paramount Pictures presents THE FREAK. This movie won't just scare
you, it will fuck you up for life.' I want to know how the fuck the
word *fuck* gets in the New York fucking Times!" - Drucker, CRAZY
PEOPLE [1990]
"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving tonight, I've had it up to here
with all your shit, New York, New York." - Madelyne Thompson, singing
in DAYLIGHT [1996]
"This is New York. Where hello means goodbye." - June Goth, DEADLINE
AT DAWN [1946]
"They send messages through the personal ads, that's how they hook up.
Last year she was in Mexico City, then Los Angeles, now New York.
Desperate. I love that word." - Roberta, DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN
[1985]
"Our source was the New York Times." - Ambassador de Sadesky, DR.
STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING & LOVE THE BOMB [1964]
"Yeah, I got a big story for ya'; we came to town to see a ball game,
and now they wanna give us the chair. I love New York. Bring your
kids. Have 'em arrested. Do some time in The Big Apple." - Billy
Caufield, THE DREAM TEAM [1989]
"Hey! Hey, Hallie, Hallie Martin! We met in New York, remember?" -
Man, THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN [1979]
"It's my mother, Tom. She's alone. I never should have left her. At
least in New York, I'd be near, I'd be closer." - Father Damien
Karras, THE EXORCIST [1973]
"I'm a New York City girl. It's a little too quiet around here for
me." - Dale Arden, FLASH GORDON [1980]
"I'm Cuban. But I have an affinity for all cultures. Part of my Mongol
upbringing on the streets of New York." - Rico, FLED [1996]
"New York. That explains the hostility." - Dodge, FLED [1996]
"Oh, New York, huh?" - Policeman, FLOWER DRUM SONG [1961]
"We've been going about this all wrong. This Mister Stay-Puft is okay.
He's a sailor, he's in New York. We get this guy laid, we won't have
any trouble!" - Peter Venkman, GHOSTBUSTERS [1984]
"I've got something, I don't know what it is. But somewhere in this
world there is a Kenneth H. Dahlberg & we gotta get to him before the
New York Times does, because I think they've got the same
information." - Bernstein ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN [1976]
"I took 1 course in existential philosophy at, uh, at New York
University, & on, uh, on the final ... they gave me 10 questions & uh,
I couldn't answer a single one of 'em. You know? I left 'em all
blank... I got 100." - Sandy Bates, STARDUST MEMORIES
"Let's be reasonable about this. You're not gonna come down here & be
my co-pilot & I'm not gonna go to New York & be your receptionist.
Let's not complicate things." - Quinn Harris, 6 DAYS 7 NIGHTS [1998]
"In the summer of 1982, 1983, 1984, my girlfriend Renee & I rented a
cabin in upstate New York in Krumville. K-R-U-M-V-I-L-L-E." - SPALDING
GRAY: TERRORS OF PLEASURE [1988]
"Whatever, man. It's different out here. It's not like New York,
Mikey." - Sue, SWINGERS [1996]
"That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York." - Sally
Albright, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY [1989]
"On the ride to New York." - Sally Albright, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
[1989]
"I am an actress. Not a circus performer. I am going to New York City.
Next time you see me I am going to be a big star. And you will still
be shoveling manure." - Marie, WILD HEARTS CAN'T BE BROKEN [1991]
"We're the only two people in New York who don't think we're married."
- Peter P. Peters, SHALL WE DANCE? [1937]
"I'm not in a play right now, but I will be. I'm going to New York."
-- Kathy Selden, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN [1952]
"Oh, you're going to New York & then some day we'll all hear of you,
won't we? Kathy Selden as Juliet, as Lady Macbeth, as King Lear.
You'll have to wear a beard for that one of course." - Don Lockwood,
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN [1952]
"I would rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man
who sold it." - Will Rogers
"Take this. It's Uncle Howard's phone number in New York." - Grace
Foster "I've got an uncle in New York?" - Brantley Foster THE SECRET
OF MY SUCCE$S [1987]
"I'm going to introduce you to the most powerful money men in New
York, and if you can do to them what you've done to me ..." - Vera
Prescott THE SECRET OF MY SUCCE$S [1987]
"Look at me, I'm the King Of New York!" - Racetrack NEWSIES [1992]
"You get your picture in the papes you're famous. You're famous you
get anything you want. That's what's so great about New York." -
Racetrack NEWSIES [1992]
"Can't get this in a restaurant in New York." - Paul Sheldon, MISERY
[1990]
"This is New York City. A man can do whatever he wants." - Cop, MOSCOW
ON THE HUDSON [1984]
"I'm going to New York to try to break into public television!" - Big
Bird THE MUPPET MOVIE [1979]
"I'm staying! You hear that, New York? THE FROG IS STAYING!" - Kermit
the Frog THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN [1984]
"No you're thinking of Kid New York. He fought out of Philly." - Lt.
Frank Drebin, NAKED GUN 2½: THE SMELL OF FEAR [1991]
"What you doin' with such a big ol' dog in New York?" - Earl Slater,
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW [1959]
"Oh yeah? Well guess fuckin' what? I don't really fuckin' care. You
wanna know fuckin' why? Because I don't live in the fuckin' world, I
live in New York City! So go fuck yourself." - Henry Hackett, THE
PAPER [1994]
"Is the Mayor of New York still Italian?" - Roseanna ROSEANNA'S GRAVE
[1997]
"Look, this was a free trip to New York. If I had known you were
looking for Marcia fucking Brady, I woulda stayed home." - Gia
Carangi, GIA [1998]
"Anything else, mom? U want me to mow the lawn? Forgot, new york, No
grass." - Dade, HACKERS [1995]
"Here we are Marv. New York City, the land of opportunity. Smell
that?" - Harry, HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK [1992]
"The finest in New York." - Mrs. Stone, Desk Clerk, HOME ALONE 2: LOST
IN NEW YORK [1992]
"You New York Italian, father-made-twenty-bucks-a-week son of a
bitch." - Darwin Mayflower, HUDSON HAWK [1991]
"Hey buddy, who's New York's most liquid businessman? Waring
Hudsucker!" - Buzz, THE HUDSUCKER PROXY [1994]
"What is Ramius going to do, sail into New York Harbor, pop the hatch,
and say 'Here I am'?" - Captain Davenport, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
[1990]
"Well Bob, at summer's end I plan on moving to New York where I'll
pursue a career as a serious actress. It's my goal to entertain the
world through artistic expression. Through art I shall serve my
country." - Helen, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER ['97]
"What's the name of this girl with a fancy New York address?" - Ben
Hood, THE ICE STORM [1997]
"The news division has been vilified in The New York Times, in print,
on television, for caving to corporate interests! The New York Times
ran a blow by blow of what we talked about behind closed doors! You
fucked us!" - Don Hewitt, THE INSIDER [1999]
"Moscow in flames, missiles headed for New York. More at eleven." -
Newscaster, THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE [1977]
"I think it's a reasonable assumption that if you're dead you don't
suddenly turn up in the New York City Transit System." - Larry Lipton
MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY (1993)
"New York is the city that never sleeps! That's why we don't live in
Duluth. Plus, I don't even know where Duluth is. Lucky me." - Larry
Lipton MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY (1993)
"New York is a melting pot! I'm used to it!" - Larry Lipton MANHATTAN
MURDER MYSTERY (1993)
"It's so beautiful here. If it just had the New York Times, it would
be perfect." - Marcy Tizard, THE MATCHMAKER [1997]
"It just be raining black men in New York!" - Jay, MEN IN BLACK [1997]
"Then, how come you ain't scored once the whole time you been in New
York?" - Rico Rizzo, MIDNIGHT COWBOY [1969]
"Frankly, you're beginning to smell and for a stud in New York, that's
a handicap." - Rico Rizzo, MIDNIGHT COWBOY [1969]
"I don't want to die in Texas. New York or Chicago maybe, but not
Texas." - Hickey, LAST MAN STANDING [1996]
"The Cotton Club's alright. But it ain't got nothin' on The Boom Boom
Room. If any of you ever get to New York, go to Ray's Boom Boom Room,
the most happening spot in all of Manhattan." - Rayford Gibson, LIFE
[1999]
"If I weren't going to be a writer I'd go to New York and pursue the
stage. Are you shocked?" - Jo, LITTLE WOMEN [1994]
"I'm always frank and earnest with women. Uh, in New York I'm Frank,
and Chicago I'm Ernest." - Mitch Henessey, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT
[1996]
"You've already wasted three minutes of my time! Now why don't you do
what I do to keep the New York Philharmonic in time: beat it!" -
Mahler, to Krenek, MAHLER [1974]
"Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.
Beneath his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a
jungle cat. I love this. New York was his town, and it always would be
..." - Isaac Davis, MANHATTAN [1979]
--
DonnaB-BooRadley Moments <*> shallotpeel on Yahoo Messenger %^}
And, a new one, ... as of this summer, August, I think, ...
"You dress the same in Hell as you do in New York and L.A." - Luke,
GH, 7/01
The Sanity Inspector
http://www.newyork.com/vny/panorama/tour3a.html
--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
--The Jam
Donna L. Bridges
"Never let the poor and destitute emigrant stop at New York - it will
be his ruin." - Calvin Colton, _Manuel [sic] for Emigrants to
America_, 1832
"The Americans are justly very proud of it, and its residents
passionately attached to it ... a young New Yorker, who had been in
Europe for more than a year, was in the same sleigh with me. 'There
goes the old city!' said he in his enthusiasm, as we entered Broadway;
'I could almost jump out and hug a lamp-post!'" - Alexander Mackay,
_The Western World_, 1849
"New York is a sucked orange." - Emerson, _Conduct of Life: Culture_,
1860
"More and more too, the _old name_ absorbs into me - MANNAHATTA, 'the
place encircled by many swift tides and sparkling waters.' How fit a
name for America's great democratic island city! The word itself, how
beautiful! how aboriginal! how it seems to rise with tall spires,
glistening in sunshine, with such New World atmosphere, vista, and
action!" - Walt Whitman, _Goodbye My Fancy_, 10 May 1879
"That frightful cyclone of electricity and machinery called New York."
- Lafcadio Hearn, letter, 1889
"New York is appalling, fantastically charmless and elaborately dire."
- Henry James, letter, 1904
"New York is too strenuous for me; it gets on my nerves." - Ambrose
Bierce, letter, 1904
"This is the first sensation of life in New York - you feel that the
Americans have practically added a new dimension to space. They move
almost as much on the perpendicular as on the horizontal plane. When
they find themselves a little crowded, they simply tip a street on end
and call it a skyscraper." - William Archer, _America Today_, 1900
"What else can you expect from a town that's shut off from the world
by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other?" - O. Henry,
_Gentle Grafter: A Tempered Wind_, 1908
"New York looks as ever: stiff, machine-made, and against nature. It
is so mechanical there is not the sense of death." - D. H. Lawrence,
letter, 1924
"Every great wave of popular passion that rolls up on the prairies is
dashed to spray when it strikes the hard rocks of Manhattan." - H. L.
Mencken, 'Totentanz', _Prejudices_, 1925
"I ... wonder what it is in the New York air that enables me to sit up
till all hours of the night in an atmosphere which in London would
make a horse dizzy, but here merely clears the brain." - James Agate,
_Ego 3_, 9 May 1937
"New York City isn't a melting pot, it's a boiling pot." - Thomas E.
Dewey, in conversation with John Gunther, _Inside U.S.A., 1947
"From the moment a New Yorker is confronted with almost any large city
of Europe, it is impossible for him to pretend to himself that his own
city is anything other than an unscrupulous real-estate speculation."
- Edmund Wilson, _Europe Without Baedeker_, 1947
"It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfil him, depending a good
deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is
willing to be lucky." - E. B. White, _Here is New York_, 1949
"If Paris is the setting for a romance, New York is the perfect city
in which to get over one, to get over anything. Here the lost _douceur
de vivre_ is forgotten and the intoxication of living takes its
place." - Cyril Connolly, quoted in _Ideas and Places_, 1953
"A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I
lose all sense of the past." - Kenneth Tynan, 'A Memoir of Manhattan',
1960, in _Tynan Right and Left_, 1967
"It looked like a pagan banner planted on a Christian rampart." -
Douglas Reed, _Far and Wide_, 1951
"I think that New York is not the cultural centre of America, but the
business and administrative centre of American culture." - Saul
Bellow, radio interview, _Listener_, 22 May 1969
"I love short trips to New York; to me it is the finest three-day town
on earth." - James Cameron, _Witness_, 1966
"Hemingway described literary New York as a bottle full of tapeworms
trying to feed on each other." - John Updike, _Picked Up Pieces_, 1976
"It is as if all American appliances dreamed of being cars while all
French appliances dreamed of being telephones." - the difference
between New York and Paris, according to Adam Gopnik, in _Paris to the
Moon_