New York City

"Some day this old Broadway shall climb to the skies, As a ribbon of cloud on a soul-wind shall rise, And we shall be lifted, rejoicing by night, Till we join with the planets who choir their delight. The signs in the streets and the signs in the skies Shall make a new Zodiac, guiding the wise, And Broadway make one with that marvelous stair That is climbed by the rainbow-clad spirits of prayer."

"For reasons becoming clear to me, New York City you are dead to me. Well, you can turn back time but I'm never coming back."

"Up in the heights of the evening skies I see my City of Cities float In sunset's golden and crimson dyes: I look and a great joy clutches my throat! Plateau of roofs by canyons crossed: windows by thousands fire-furled— O gazing, how the heart is lost in the Deepest City in the World."

"Just where the Treasury's marble front * Looks over Wall Street's mingled nations,— Where Jews and Gentiles most are wont * To throng for trade and last, quotations; Where, hour, by hour, the rates of gold * Outrival, in the ears of people, The quarter-chimes, serenely tolled From Trinity's undaunted steeple."

"Lo! body and soul!—this land! Mighty Manhattan, with spires, and The sparkling and hurrying tides, and the ships; The varied and ample land,—the South And the North in the light—Ohio's shores, and flashing Missouri, And ever the far-spreading prairies, covered with grass and corn."

"But we're hunters; we take pride in airing our prey out. Leaving them laid out, dead, in just a sport. Because we aren't playing up here in New York."

"Big pimping, up in NYC."

"In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made, oh There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York New York, New York."

"'Cause everyone's my friend in New York City And everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty The streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see But the best thing about New York City is you and me."

"Cause when you leave New York Man, you don't go anywhere It's a city where a man Can fulfill his dreams The only town that's left That's got three baseball teams (That's why New York's his home) Let me never leave it New York's my home, sweet home"

"I had seven faces thought I knew which one to wear But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights training myself not to care the subway, she is a porno and the pavements they are a mess I know you've supported me for a long time somehow I'm not impressed New York Cares (got to be some more change in my life)"

"New York City, you are now riding with 50 Cent! You've got to love it!"

"I run New York. Yayo tell them, I run New York."

"Brownsville, Flatbush, Crown Heights, Brooklyn Zoo... Welcome to the jungle. New York, New York. Gangsters use sign language, and let their guns talk."

"Me, I'm takin' a Greyhound On the Hudson River line I'm in a New York State of Mind"

"One hand in the air for the big city Street lights, big dreams, all lookin' pretty No place in the world that could compare Put your lighters in the air Everybody say "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah""

"She is a rock As we pull but she is steady And no one can take her freedom away, yeah (Can't take her freedom) I love her style Whether she is clean or dirty She's the greatest town that you'll ever find, yeah!"

"She is my heart I love New York City She's lived and died So many times, yeah! Life is always tough On New York City, oh lord But she is fine, she always survives, yeah!"

"New York, I love you. But, you're bringing me down. Like a rat in a cage, pulling minimum wage."

"New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the 's down."

"It's easier to leave than to be left behind Leaving was never my proud Leaving New York, never easy I saw the light fading out You find it in your heart, it's pulling me apart You find it in your heart, change..."

"If I can make it there, I'm going to make it anywhere! It's up to you, New York!"

"Welcome to New York, it's been waitin' for you Welcome to New York, welcome to New York [...] It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat, beat forevermore The lights are so bright, but they never blind me, me [...] Like any great love, it keeps you guessing Like any real love, it's ever-changing Like any true love, it drives you crazy But you know you wouldn't change anything, anything, anything [...] It's a new soundtrack, I could dance to this beat The lights are so bright, but they never blind me"

"Why do we still live here In this repulsive town? All our friends are in New York"

"In New York freedom looks like too many choices In New York I found a friend to drown out the other voices Voices on the cell phone Voices from home Voices of the hard sell Voices down the stairwell In New York, just got a place in New York"

": Village neighbors [Singing theme song]: In this cold and heartless city Isn't the village a pretty place Aglow in the morning sun? 'Can't imagine why it should be, But something's happened to me I feel like smiling at everyone. 'Though the world may not be perfect yet, Still the only way we're gonna get any better is if we try. Look at the fun we've been missing Things like huggin' and kissin' So let's enjoy it the way we should. Tell me what's so bad, Tell me what's so bad About feeling good?'Always thought that life was just a drag Now this daisy's got a brand new bag Hey world take a good look at me. Though I'm flying high as a kite, What turns me on is the sight of life, The grooviest trip of all Best kick I've ever had, So tell me what's so bad about feeling good?"

":Village neighbors [Singing theme song]: So don't forget to carry a smile And maybe after a while it will all turn out the way it should So tell me what's so bad about feeling good?"

"Mitchell Hundred: Kremlin? Jesus, you can't just break into , you nutjob!"

"A certified geezer is also freer to express displeasure. Once I was walking in midtown Manhattan at rush hour, and I came to a massive traffic jam, horns honking everywhere, and right in the middle of a major intersection, the center of the whole mess, was a taxi driver honking at a very elderly man who was standing directly in front of the cab, blocking its path, and hitting it with his umbrella. WHAP the umbrella would go, on the hood. Then, very slowly, the elderly man would raise it into the air, over his head, where it would waver for a second and then... WHAP it would come down on the hood again. I stopped to watch, along with a large crowd of New Yorkers, who have an inbred genetic hatred of taxi drivers and who cheered louder with every WHAP. Nobody made any effort to move the elderly man out of the way. He was doing exactly what we'd all wanted to do a million times, but we couldn't because we'd get run over or arrested. I finally had to leave, but I like to think that the reason New York traffic is always so screwed up is that the elderly man is still in that intersection, whapping away. So for my money, geezerhood is definitely the way to go. In fact, you might want to start practicing right now."

"I'll give you another example of what I'm talking about. We've traveled extensively in the United States, and our son often travels with us, and when he does we always try to arrange to have one of those folding beds for him in our hotel room. Beth always calls the hotel in advance and asks them to please write down that we want a folding bed. She calls later to confirm that there will be a folding bed. When we check in, we always remind them that we need a folding bed. So needless to say, there has never- not once, in ten years, in dozens and dozens of hotels- been an actual folding bed in our room when we got there. We always have to call Housekeeping tto ask for it, and nothing happens, so we call again, and maybe again, and of course Housekeeping is not happy about this- These damned guests! Always calling Housekeeping and requesting Housekeeping services!"- and then finally, often late at night, our folding bed will be brought to us by a person who is obviously annoyed about having to deliver beds in the middle of the night to people who should have thought of this earlier. Naturally, I always give this person a tip. In Japan, the bed was always there, at every hotel, when we checked in. This may seem minor to you, but to us it was a miracle, comparable in scope to having a total stranger hold a door open for you in New York City."

"Two invasive species in particular have caused serious concern: Burmese pythons, and New Yorkers. The New Yorkers have been coming for years, which is weird because pretty much all they do once they get to Florida is bitch about how everything here sucks compared to the earthly paradise that is New York. They continue to root, loudly, for the Jets, the Knicks, the Mets, and the Yankees; they never stop declaring, loudly, that in New York the restaurants are better, the stores are nicer, the people are smarter, the public transportation is free of sharks, etc. The Burmese pythons are less obnoxious, but just as alarming in their own way. These are snakes that started out as pets of Miami residents, until one day these residents stopped smoking crack and said, "Jesus H. Christ! We're living with a giant snake!""

"Nothing remains static in New York City."

"Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life."

"The global role of the United States is perhaps the ultimate chapter in that long period of European expansion which had begun in western Europe, and especially on the Atlantic seaboard, during the 15th century. Europe slowly had outgrown its homeland. Its cultural empire eventually formed a long band traversing most of the Northern Hemisphere and dipping far into the Southern. The modern hub of the peoples and ideas of European origin is now New York as much as Paris, or Los Angeles as much as London. In the history of the European peoples the city of Washington is perhaps what Constantinople - the infant city of Emperor Constantine - was to the last phase of the Roman Empire; for it is unlikely that Europeans, a century hence, will continue to stamp the world so decisively with their ideas and inventions."

"You know what’s great about New York? The threshold for citizenship as a New Yorker is actually pretty short. If you come to New York and you still like it two years after you arrived here, and you still think it’s great and you’re having a good time and you haven’t been just totally ground down and go limping back to wherever the fuck you came from, you know what? You’re in!"

"I can't see heaven but I credit hell — I live in New York so I know it well."

"Manhattan. Sometimes from beyond the skyscrapers, across thousands of high walls, the fearful cry of a too-well-known voice finds you in your insomnia in the middle of the night, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island of un-reality."

"New York is the only real city-city."

"Of course, in Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people don't have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That's why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car."

"Boston is among an increasing number of municipalities, universities, and private foundations that have announced plans to divest from fossil fuels. In late October, ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP26, Auckland, New Zealand; Copenhagen, Denmark; Glasgow, Scotland; Paris; Rio de Janeiro; and Seattle announced commitments to divest from fossil fuel companies and increase investments to make cities more sustainable. Also last month, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott signed a bill that requires the city’s three pension funds to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Those are in addition to divestment commitments made last year by Berlin; Bristol, England; Cape Town, South Africa; Durban, South Africa; London; Los Angeles; Milan; New Orleans; New York City; Oslo; Norway; Pittsburgh; and Vancouver, Canada. “Cities are at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency and there is real momentum to move investments away from fossil fuels and toward climate solutions,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is chair-elect of C40 Cities, a network of mayors working to confront climate change, said in a statement. “I will continue to encourage more cities to join the movement, and urge national governments and private finance institutions to mobilize more finance to invest directly in cities to support a green and fair recovery.”"

"What is to be said of leaders with the mental acuity and moral perceptions revealed by these disclosed words and deeds? They are at best enemies of life without understanding. Psychologically, they disconnect all feeling for the beauty of the planet — a rose, an impala in motion, a baby’s hand, a Confucian analect, a Bach cantata, a parable of Jesus, pilgrims bathing in the Ganges, a crowd watching a soccer game in Rio, the subway in Moscow, the skyline in Manhattan. They cannot think or feel about the human meaning of what they do.,, A single Trident II submarine can inflict more death than all prior wars in history. Twenty-four missiles, launched while submerged, each with seventeen independently targeted, maneuverable nuclear warheads five times more powerful than the atom bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, can travel 5,000 nautical miles to strike within 300 feet of 408 predetermined targets. Nuclear winter might follow even if no other weapons are used."

"Donald Trump has been uncommonly nice to Hillary and me. We're all New Yorkers. And I like him. And I love playing golf with him."

"We are all New Yorkers, just as surely as John F. Kennedy declared himself to be a Berliner in 1962 when he visited Berlin."

"I am no more a child, but a man; no longer a confederacy, but a nation. I am no more Virginia, New York, Carolina, or Massachusetts, but the United States of America."

"New York was no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion, the mysterious nexus of all love and money and power, the shining and the perishable dream itself. To think of 'living' there was to reduce the miraculous to the mundane; one does not 'live' at Xanadu."

"This is New York. We'll find a place to dance."

"Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it? I can't say, people just liked it better that way."

"You come together today in St Thomas church in New York united in sorrow by the terrible events of last week. Each and every one of us has been shocked and numbed by what we have witnessed in these recent days. But none of us should doubt the resilience and determination of this great and much loved city and its people. Men and women from many nations, from many faiths and from many backgrounds were working together in New York City when this unimaginable outrage overtook them all."

"New York, the capital of neuroticism"

"Whoever you are, you’re too weird even for New York, and that’s saying something."