Your Favorite NYC Quotation

[YesIsaidYesIwillYes]

"There is always something going on in New York, and 80% of it goes unsolved"

Don't know who said this but I think it's pretty funny. *Anyways, I'd like to get a list going. *

[NoyokA]

Great post.

And Im sure Im misquoting Le Corbusier but from one of his many visits and essays on New York City.

"New York City has too many skyscrapers, and too few *tall enough."

Im so sorry Le Corbusier, I ruined a great quote. But you guys get the jidst of it right?

[ablarc]

'The New York skyscraper is only negative. It has destroyed the street and brought traffic to a standstill. It consumes the very life of the population and eats up whole districts around itself, emptying them and bringing ruin. Build the skyscraper bigger and more really useful, [place it in a park] and it will reclaim a vast amount of land, will compensate for depreciated properties, will provide a perfect system of circulation, and will bring trees and open spaces into the city. The pedestrians will have the freedom of parks over the whole ground area and the cars will travel from skyscraper to skyscraper at a hundred miles an hour on one-way elevated roads placed at wide distances apart...
Notice how the great hotels and apartment houses [around Central Park] have naturally come to be built here so as to have the advantage of looking out on space. But Central Park is too big; it is an island in a sea of buildings. Crossing it is like traversing no-man's-land. The trees, grass and... space of Central Park ought to be multiplied and spread over the whole of Manhattan...'
--Le Corbusier, 1936, in a letter to the editor of “American Architect”.

Is this my favorite NYC quote? Hell, no! But it helps put Stern's recollection into nonsensical context. This quote was undoubtedly an influence on the folks who brought us Co-op City.

Well, not quite 100 mph...


(Edited by ablarc at 12:55 pm on Sep. 1, 2003)


(Edited by ablarc at 1:06 pm on Sep. 1, 2003)


(Edited by ablarc at 3:03 pm on Sep. 1, 2003)

[ZippyTheChimp]

That's a quote. Stern's was a quotation.

Living in California adds ten years to a man's life. And those extra ten years I'd like to spent in New York.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Harry Ruby - songwriter

[ablarc]

"Cities are extraordinarily resilient places, as we witnessed immediately after September 11th in New York City, and adversity, far from undermining civic confidence, can bring about a renewed and determined spirit of community and common endeavour."

--HRH The Prince of Wales, just after September 11

Is this still true two years after?

[ablarc]

I'll take Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island too,
it's lovely going through
the zoo (with you)
It's very fancy
on old Delancey
Street, you know.
The subway charms us so,
when balmy breezes blow
to and fro.
And tell me what street
compares with Mott street
in July,
Sweet push carts gently gliding by

The great big city's a wondrous toy,
just made for a girl and boy.
I'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.

I'll go to Greenwich,
where modern men itch
to be free.
And Bowling Green you'll see
with me.
We'll bathe at Brighton,
the fish you'll frighten
When you're in your bathing suit so thin,
will make shellfish grin
fin to fin.
I'd like to take a
sail on Jamaica
*Bay with you,
the fair Canarsies Lake we'll view

The city's bustle cannot destroy
the dreams of a girl and boy,
I'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.

Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Music by Richard Rodgers
From the Show, "The Garrick Gaieties", *1925


(Edited by ablarc at 8:03 am on Sep. 2, 2003)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Every time I visit this great city, I'm struck by the same thing. A yellow taxicab.

[TLOZ Link5]

A hundred times I think, "New York is a catastrophe." *But fifty times I think, "It is a beautiful catastrophe."

~ Le Corbusier again

[ablarc]

"It'll be a great place if they ever finish it." - O. Henry

[ZippyTheChimp]

To YesIsaidYesIwillYes:

Slightly off-topic. I don't know if it's true, but...

Why don't you write books people can read?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Nora to James Joyce

[YesIsaidYesIwillYes]

Zippy -
That is a priceless quote! *Thanks

[NeWy0rKeR]

"Every person on the streets of New York is a type. The city is one big theater where everyone is on display."
- Jerry Rubin

[Kris]

In the same vein:

"Nowhere will you better feel the simultaneity of human lives."

Jean-Paul Sartre

[NYatKNIGHT]

"Anyone who walks up Fifth Avenue on a sunny morning without feeling his spirits lift, is an asshole."

Kingsley Amis, British novelist

[ZippyTheChimp]

Outside America, New York is America, and its skyscraper a symbol of the spirit of America.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Thomas Adams, 1931

When I'm in New York I look at the Empire State Building and feel as though it belongs to me . . . or is it vice versa?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Fay Wray

In New York City, one suicide in ten is attributed to a lack of storage space.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *anon

Can't leave out Walt Whitman:
The beautiful city, the city of hurried and sparkling waters! The city of spires and masts! My city!