New York City, the epitome of the American dream, has long captured the imagination of millions around the globe. From the bustling streets of Manhattan to the diverse neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York exudes an energy and vibrancy unlike any other city in the world. Its iconic skyline, pulsating nightlife, and melting pot of cultures have inspired artists, writers, and dreamers for generations.
In the heart of this metropolis, amidst the towering skyscrapers and honking taxis, lie the voices of its people – the true essence of New York. From the stoop conversations in the Bronx to the coffee shop banter in Greenwich Village, New Yorkers are known for their wit, resilience, and unapologetic honesty. Their words carry the weight of a city that never sleeps, reflecting the dreams, struggles, and triumphs of its inhabitants. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of New York through the lens of its people, exploring their thoughts, reflections, and insights that make this city truly unique. Below, you’ll find a collection of quotes from New Yorkers that encapsulate the spirit of this iconic city. Whether you’re a native New Yorker or a visitor entranced by its charm, these quotes offer a glimpse into the soul of the Big Apple.
More than 150 heads of state attended the UN Summit, giving New Yorkers a chance to get in touch with prejudices they didn’t even know they had. Jon Stewart
I think sleep is just the most important thing. I think most New Yorkers, especially, don’t get enough sleep. Chelsea Leyland
With the Tonys it’s a little tricky because a lot of the funnier jokes are more insider, so people watching at home may not get a Julie Taymor reference the way that New Yorkers would. So you have to figure out what comedy plays to a large audience and still respect the individuals who are there. Neil Patrick Harris
After the tragedy, New Yorkers are more united than ever in their vision, as well as in appreciation what living in freedom means – and that if we stand together, we can accomplish anything. George Pataki
Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place. Johnny Carson
As Attorney General, my most important responsibility is keeping New Yorkers safe by enforcing the laws that protect our people from harm. But another fundamental part of my job is to seek to advance the basic American principle of equal justice under law. Eric Schneiderman
Too many upstate New Yorkers have to drive 30 minutes or more to see a doctor. Chris Gibson
I am one of the 11.5% of New Yorkers who remain traumatized by the events of September 11. Lanford Wilson
After the 9/11 apocalypse happened in New York City, people, particularly New Yorkers, who breathed in the ash, or saw the results of that, have a tendency to keep seeing echoes and having flashbacks to it. Stephen King
The NYPD has too urgent a mission and too few officers for us to waste time and resources on broad, unfocused surveillance. We have a responsibility to protect New Yorkers from violent crime or another terrorist attack – and we uphold the law in doing so. Raymond Kelly
The thing about our country, Americans, and New Yorkers in particular, we all want to help. There’s real folks who want to help. The problem is, they don’t know how. They don’t know how to get involved. Hill Harper
The whole point of bike-sharing is to give New Yorkers another way to commute. A lot of folks in Bay Ridge work in downtown Brooklyn or other parts of the borough. For them, it would make more sense to hop on a Citi Bike than to wait for a train or a bus. Sal Albanese
I certainly believe that all of my friends should have the right, as Marc and I did, to marry their best friend. I certainly expect my straight friends to help us achieve that for all New Yorkers, for all Americans, and for the children that, at least, Marc and I hope to have someday. Chelsea Clinton
I’m tough, and you know what? New Yorkers deserve that. They work head, they fight it out, they slug it out. And they deserve a mayor or a speaker who’s going to do the same. Christine Quinn
The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it’s people from all over the world. Steve Earle
New Yorkers may think they’re on some cutting edge, but that’s not especially true. It is, however, the most exciting heterogeneous mess of a town I’ve ever seen. Carter Burwell
People say New Yorkers can’t get along. Not true. I saw two New Yorkers, complete strangers, sharing a cab. One guy took the tires and the radio; the other guy took the engine. David Letterman
As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day. Sloane Crosley
If you aren’t born here, to be a real New Yorker, you have to bring your talent, be a successful mentor, and support the New Yorkers who made the city by giving back. Daniel Boulud
These are tough times, and the New Yorkers I have met are facing economic adversity with grace and dignity. They worry about their future, care about their neighbors and hope this storm will pass so they can focus on better days ahead. Harold Ford, Jr.
New Yorkers are real gritty and tough. Raymond Kelly
I love all the different ways that New Yorkers show their individuality through what they choose to wear. Henrik Lundqvist
I have big emotions, and I care deeply about delivering for New Yorkers, and sometimes that means you got to push things forward – and I think New Yorkers know that. Christine Quinn
My mom and dad are New Yorkers who left the tenement streets of the Bronx and came to Los Angeles when ‘West Side Story’ was real. They have the scars to prove it. Taylor Negron
I think of New Yorkers as not taking the time to talk to someone they don’t know. Carla Hall
On that terrible day, a nation became a neighborhood. All Americans became New Yorkers. George Pataki
I think New Yorkers are some of the friendliest people in the world, but it just comes out in a different way. In a way where they’re swearing at you. Ellie Kemper
Once they are charged, too many poor New Yorkers find themselves trapped by our unjust bail system. Unable to pay for bail, they languish in Rikers Island or other jails while they await trial, regardless of guilt. Eric Schneiderman
As N.Y.C. Public Advocate, I released a report that showed that stop-and-frisks of African Americans in 2012 were barely half as likely to yield a weapon as those of white New Yorkers – and a third less likely to yield contraband. Despite this evidence, the vast majority of those stopped are young black and Latino men. Bill de Blasio
My apartment is the equivalent of one room in my Toronto home. Now I understand why New Yorkers are on the streets at all hours. People don’t want to stay inside for fear they’ll go crazy. Samantha Bee
My dream is not Hollywood, but to perform my act in English to 30 people in a Soho comedy club, to show New Yorkers what they look like from the French point of view. Gad Elmaleh
Greenwich Village always had its share of mind readers, but there are many more these days, and they seem to have moved closer to the mainstream of life in the city. What was crazy 10 years ago is now respectable, even among the best-educated New Yorkers. Aravind Adiga
Violent cities, people who live in violent cities, find a way – as New Yorkers did 30 or 40 years ago – they find a way to just carry on. But you’re stressed out. You’re worried, you know. Mohsin Hamid
As one of the voices of rural New Yorkers in Congress, I am committed to supporting efforts such as these that will make a real impact in people’s lives. John M. McHugh
At every step in his life, DiMaggio was what New Yorkers wanted in a hero. Richard Ben Cramer
So you got the cool New Yorkers, and then there are the less-than-cool New Yorkers. Edward Burns
I am just a normal human being – I am alive! Why is anyone surprised that I am human? Like many New Yorkers, I have a multifaceted life. Nouriel Roubini
I’m not going to complain to New Yorkers about working too hard. Ben Elliot
New Yorkers stop me on the street all the time to say, ‘You’re terrific! You’re the nuts!’ Elaine Stritch
Like most New Yorkers I was shell-shocked immediately after 9/11 and couldn’t put into words what I was feeling. Christine Lavin
You have this impression from England that New Yorkers can be quite aggressive, but certainly the people that I’ve bumped into and the friends I’ve made here don’t seem that way. Just walking down the street and asking for directions, people seem to be very helpful and happy to help. Archie Panjabi
People in London think of London as the center of the world, whereas New Yorkers think the world ends three miles outside of Manhattan. Toby Young
When people endure a traumatic event, they are either defeated or made stronger. On Sept. 11, I told New Yorkers, ‘I want you to emerge stronger from this.’ My words were partially a hope and partially an observation that people in New York City handle big things better than little things. I could not be more proud of the way my city responded. Rudy Giuliani
New Yorkers were grateful when Donald J. Trump finished ahead of schedule and under budget in renovating the Wollman Memorial Rink, where the city had spent six years and $12 million trying to produce ice. Andrew Rosenthal
Well, it’s a little harder in New York. It’s not as forgiving to a film crew. You hold up a bunch of New Yorkers who can’t cross the street, they’re not going to take it well. Southern California? They’ll wait. It’s cool man. In New York, they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me? I gotta get to work.’ Matthew Rhys
New Yorkers think they have everything, all the best art and music. But really L.A. is a better place. Wolfgang Puck
The most divisive issue facing New Yorkers in 2013 is stop and frisk, a tactic used by law enforcement to stop, question, and frisk people suspected of a crime. Sal Albanese
I would not waste time, as Senator Gillibrand does, on things such as dictating a national minimum driving age and sponsoring a ‘National Day of Play.’ I’d help New Yorkers understand that we get less in value from Washington than what we send there in taxes. Wendy Long
It was an incredible resource. I’d sit with a big stack of bound New Yorkers in the library and read through, especially the ‘Talk of the Town’ sections. Michael Chabon
I always had the most fun going to the beach on the weekends with my friends. In a way, we treated our beach style the way New Yorkers treat their street style, so I was always conscious of how I looked. Izabel Goulart
You can get the true essence of New Yorkers by just hanging out in Central Park. Andy Roddick
‘All In’ is like the Giants motto, so I kind of took that, and I kind of used New York as the backdrop – how diehard New Yorkers are for their team. Me being a New Yorker, I just had to show my love for the city as well as my love for the New York Giants. Travie McCoy
My parents were New Yorkers, and I was conceived in Los Angeles. My father was a makeup artist to Clint Eastwood and Richard Chamberlain. Michele Lee
The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian but an American. Patrick Henry
I eat out three times a day most days of the year. This is no big deal to most New Yorkers, and it is not something I am necessarily proud of – it’s simply the nature of my itinerant life. Ben Elliot
New Yorkers only cross water for visual culture if the water is an ocean. The East River throws us for a huge loop. If we started going to Queens and the Bronx for visual culture, many of our rent, space, and crowding problems would be over indefinitely. Jerry Saltz
I may be one of the last New Yorkers who actually drives in the city daily. Donald Trump, Jr.
The expansion of tobacco cessation centers is an important part of our historic and continuing effort to help smokers quit. The expansion of these centers will give even more New Yorkers the help they need to quit once and for all. George Pataki
Congressmember Weiner has shown just a pattern of reckless behavior, an inability to tell the truth, and what New Yorkers deserve is a mayor with a record of delivering for them, of vision, and a level of maturity and responsibility. Christine Quinn
I’ve spent a great deal of time over the past decade as a caregiver for various family members. It gives me a perspective on the struggles that many New Yorkers face with illness, disability, health care, insurance difficulties, and trying to work with and also take care of family members. Wendy Long
New Yorkers are stuck in a gloomy mucilage of mutual commiseration. Herb Caen
New Yorkers have a delightfully narcissistic habit of assuming that if they’re not conscious of a scene, it doesn’t exist. Sloane Crosley
Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms. New Yorkers probably know that as much if not more than anybody else after the terrible tragedy of 9/11. Michael Bloomberg
Most New Yorkers want to look amazing, and they want you to understand that they look amazing, but they also want you to stop staring at them. Ellie Kemper
I’ve already begun to put pilot programs in place that give CUNY grads opportunities to get good tech jobs. We should expand on that so that New Yorkers are getting those jobs, because those jobs are probably one of the biggest 21st Century pathways into the middle class. Christine Quinn
The contrasts between what is spent today to educate a child in the poorest New York City neighborhoods, where teacher salaries are often even lower than the city averages, and spending levels in the wealthiest suburban areas are daunting challenges to any hope New Yorkers might retain that even semblances of fairness still prevail. Jonathan Kozol
New Yorkers must be able to trust the men and women of the NYPD. They must come forward to report crimes. And they must come forward as witnesses. Eric Schneiderman
People say that New Yorkers aren’t friendly, but I think they’re more friendly than Londoners. Here there is a front-footed nature of Americans. You can go out on a night out and meet 10 random people and stay in touch with them, whereas that’s not going to happen in the same way in London. Theo James
I do love to walk around in New York because people will notice me, smile, but they never bother anyone. New Yorkers are very cool. I love New York. Creed Bratton
I think that most New Yorkers would object to calling me a New Yorker. I didn’t grow up here. Sloane Crosley
Back when I lived in Brooklyn, I’d sometimes take the Q train all the way out to Coney Island and back, and work on my laptop. There’s something about pushy New Yorkers looking over your shoulder that really makes you produce sentences. Joshua Foer
If New Yorkers reduced portion size to 16 ounces from 20 ounces for one sugary drink every two weeks, it would collectively save approximately 2.3 million pounds over one year. Casey Neistat
I have a bold plan to break from the Bloomberg years, and end the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ by providing real opportunity to all New Yorkers, no matter where they live. Bill de Blasio
I have lived in this city my whole life and have seen the way gentrification has changed it. I’m not necessarily against transplants, as 75 percent of my good friends, roommate, and boyfriend are not native New Yorkers. Awkwafina
Every single day, we have hundreds, if not thousands of police officers protecting the lives of not just New Yorkers, but the millions who come to New York City to work and to vacation. Vito Fossella
Secret ops by secret forces have a nasty tendency to produce unintended, unforeseen, and completely disastrous consequences. New Yorkers will remember well the end result of clandestine U.S. support for Islamic militants against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s: 9/11. Nick Turse
I’m just not gonna let up until I know I’ve done absolutely everything I can for New Yorkers. Christine Quinn
As soon as I start reading, drawing comes to me more easily. I find I work in my sketchbooks more. But if I’m working on a new show, my reading completely stops except when I’m on a plane. I take a stack of New Yorkers with me. I feel awful about those stacks of New Yorkers. Barry McGee
I get nostalgic for British negativity. There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers. When you go back to Britain, everybody is just running everything down. It’s like whatever the opposite of a hug is. John Oliver
Anybody that I can work with that will help improve the lives of New Yorkers, I will work with that person. Christine Quinn
I think the most interesting New Yorkers are the people who were not born here. Elaine Stritch
The world’s greatest city – New York City – deserves a government that works for all New Yorkers. That starts with a mayor who is independent from party bosses and special interests, who isn’t afraid to be honest with the people, and who is focused on the issues New Yorkers care about most. Sal Albanese
I’m not running from the left; I’m running from the bottom. I’m running in fierce advocacy for working-class New Yorkers. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
As I’ve always said, the way New Yorkers back us we have to produce for them. George Steinbrenner
New Yorkers always want to win. But it’s just as important to us that you show us that you’re trying like hell to do it for us. Stephen A. Smith
Putting labels on entire groups of people makes things much simpler. If all New Yorkers are pushy, or all politicians are dishonest, we don’t have to do the hard work of figuring out who’s who. Robert J. Waldinger
New Yorkers have been fortunate to have Andrew Cuomo as our Attorney General – protecting working New Yorkers against the banks, insurance companies and big corporations. Eric Schneiderman
New York is the perfect place for a film festival because there’s already so much energy and life here, and New Yorkers love movies. Clark Gregg
I think that, in comparison, New Yorkers and Northerners are so guarded. Genevieve Gorder
What’s so fascinating about New Yorkers is that each person has a whole lexicon of personal logic in the way that they decipher and do what has to be done to enjoy, stay alive, take pleasure in this place. Spalding Gray
I came out of a building and this woman stopped me, like, ‘You’re Miss Universe!’ And she was a New Yorker! I’m not used to New Yorkers being fans, because they’re so blase about it, you know. Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters
I get a little sick of these New Yorkers who want me to make some psychic thing, like ‘The Left-Handed Gun.’ They don’t know anything about Western history. Howard Hawks
Deprived of the opportunity to judge one another by the cars we drive, New Yorkers, thrown together daily on mass transit, form silent opinions based on our choices of subway reading. Just by glimpsing the cover staring back at us, we can reach the pinnacle of carnal desire or the depths of hatred. Soul mate or mortal enemy. David Rakoff
I think that Shake Shack wouldn’t exist had it not been for Twitter. I don’t think you would have gotten a hundred New Yorkers to stand in line for an hour if they couldn’t have made their time really productive and organized snowball fights, ordered free hot chocolate, and, you know, Instagrammed photos. Danny Meyer
If the Frieze Art Fair catches on, I imagine at least two great things happening. First, we will once again have a huge art fair in town that isn’t too annoying to go to. More importantly, Frieze may finally show New Yorkers that we can cross our own waters for visual culture. That would change everything. Jerry Saltz
Today we voted as Democrats and Republicans. Tomorrow we begin again as New Yorkers. Hillary Clinton
There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers. John Oliver
New Yorkers, by reputation, are fast-talking, assertive and easily annoyed; I fit right in. Jane Pauley
New Yorkers are mostly interested in New York – in case you haven’t noticed. Jim Harrison
I know New Yorkers are gonna vote for a candidate – me – who has the longest record of delivering for them. They want a mayor who can deliver for them. And I’m the only one – I don’t care who gets in – who has that record. Christine Quinn