There is something special about New York City. And you can feel it from the very first time you visit. This collection of quotes will fuel your NYC wanderlust and help you find the best Instagram captions for your trip.
Famous Quotes About New York City
1. “I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, “There’s no place like New York. It’s the most exciting city in the world now. That’s the way it is. That’s it.” – Robert De Niro
2. “This is the city of dreamers and time and again it’s the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed.” – Michael Bloomberg
3. “I didn’t know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited.” – Greta Gerwig
4. “I get out of the taxi and it’s probably the only city which in reality looks better than on the postcards, New York.” – Milos Forman
5. “I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.” – David Bowie
6. ““Make your mark in New York and you are a made man.” – Mark Twain
7. “New York is so full of the best unemployed actors on the planet.” – Rachel McAdams
8. “If you want to become a real New Yorker, there’s only one rule: You have to believe New York is, has been, and always will be the greatest city on earth. The center of the universe.” – Ellen R. Shapiro
9. “One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” – Tom Wolfe
10. “I love short trips to New York; to me it is the finest three-day town on earth.” – James Cameron
11. “New York City is one of the greatest places on the planet. You have the best in food, art, theatre, and definitely people-watching.” – Matt Bomer
12. “A middle finger is more New York than a corporate ambush. I bleed for my hometown, and I’d die for my fans.” – Lady Gaga
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Greatest New York City Quotes
13. “When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.” – Fran Lebowitz
14. “New York is not a city – it’s a world.” – Iman
15. “One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.” – Georgia O’Keefe
16. “Whoever is born in New York is ill-equipped to deal with any other city: all other cities seem, at best, a mistake, and, at worst, a fraud.” – James Baldwin
17. “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline.” – Ayn Rand
18. “I don’t like cities. But I like New York. Other places make me feel like a dork.” – Madonna
19. “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” – Simone de Beauvoir
20. ““I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.” – Truman Capote
21. “I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” – Nora Ephron
22. “If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting.” – Peter Shaffer
23. “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
24. “I love that about New York: You just dress the way you want to dress and feel really comfortable because nobody is judging. You can just be yourself, and it’s perfectly normal.” – Henrik Lundquist
25. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
READ: Where to stay in NYC
New York City Song Quotes
26. “Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.” – Taylor Swift
27. “I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.” – Frank Sinatra
28. “To be young and in love in New York City.” – Lauv
29. “New York, you make it happen.” – Beastie Boy
30. “A concrete jungle where dreams are made of. 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.” – Alicia Keys
31. “I’m in a New York state of mind.” – Billy Joel
32. “Spread love it’s the Brooklyn Way.” – The Notorious B.I.G
33. “The bus for New York City!” – Stevie Wonder
34. “Times Square can’t shine as bright as you.” – Plain White T’s
35. “Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?” – Ella Fitzgerald
36. “Bright Lights Big City.” – Gary Clark Jr.
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New York Movie Quotes
37. “Here we are Marv, New York City, the land of opportunity.” – Harry, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
38. “My father told me we was all born of blood and tribulation, and so then too was our great city.” – Amsterdam Vallon, Gangs of New York
39. “Superheroes? In New York? Give me a break!” – Stan Lee, The Avengers
40. “Well, like you said there’s no friends on Wall Street. Right?” – Naomi Lapaglia, The Wolf of Wall Street
41. “We’ve busted murderers; we’ve taken down cartels. But today we face the worst New York has to offer: the fire department.” – Andy Samberg Brooklyn Nine-Nine
42. “You’re a New Yorker, that won’t ever change. You got New York in your bones. Spend the rest of your life out west but you’re still a New Yorker.” – James Brogan, 25th Hour
43. “The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.” – Sophie, Frances Ha
44. “And I always heard people in New York never get to know their neighbors.” – Paul Varjak, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
45. “I always dreamed of going to Madison Square Gardens, see the Knicks play.” – Jackie Chan, Rush Hour 2
46. “Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.” – The Mayor of New York, Ghostbusters II
47. “Only a Carpathian would come back to life now and choose New York.” – Bill Murray, Ghostbusters II
48. “I went to New York once in 1981, and I just did not feel safe.” – Ted
49. “Gossip Girl Here, Your One And Only Source Into The Scandalous Lives Of Manhattan’s Elite.” – Kristen Bell, Gossip Girl
50. “Do you ever see any penguins running free around New York City? Of course not. We don’t belong here. It’s just not natural.” – Skipper, Madagascar
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View NYC GuidebookQuotes About New Yorkers
51. “My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.” – Bill Murray
52. “But there is one thing about it—once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.” – John Steinbeck
53. “New York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly find a typical American.” – Djuna Barnes
54. “New York is made up of millions of different people, and they all come here looking for something.” – Lindsey Kelk
55. “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” – Neil Simon
56. “The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” – John Updike
57. “Yet, as only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you’ll live through the night.” – Dorothy Parker
58. “I live in New York City, so there’s so much stimulation when you walk outside, it does not require a television in the home.” – Jesse Eisenberg
59. “The great city of New York wields more of the destinies of this great nation that five times the population of any other portion of the country.” –Malcolm S. Forbes
60. “New York ladies all look immaculate.” – Zac Posen
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Statue Of Liberty Quotes
61. “Living in New York City, I am reminded by the Statue of Liberty that the United States of America has always welcomed those yearning to breathe free and seek a better life.” – Charles B. Rangel
62. “And you have to remember that I came to America as an immigrant. You know, on a ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really as the American Dream.” – Daniel Libeskind
63. “Many of America’s and New York’s sons and daughters are around the world fighting for the freedoms that the Statue of Liberty stands for.” – Michael Bloomberg
64. “The most powerful visual in America today is actually the Statue of Liberty.” – Frank Luntz
65. “It’s not enough for the torch of liberty to be held up high only by one woman, every human must hold the torch up high in every corner of the world.” – Abhijit Naskar
66. “I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast.” – Viktor E. Frankl
67. “As I looked up at the Statue of Liberty, I thought at that time, What a wonderful country.” – Elaine Chao
68. “I have a wonderful make-up crew. They’re the same people restoring the Statue of Liberty.” – Bob Hope
69. “The Statue of Liberty really is profound, I just wish she’d lighten up a bit.” – Dov Davidoff
70. “The Statue of Liberty really is profound, I just wish she’d lighten up a bit.” – Dov Davidoff
READ: How to get to the Statue of Liberty
Funny NYC Quotes
71. “Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.” – Johnny Carson
72. “Being a New Yorker grounds you in every way. Before you walk out of the house, you can dress in the nicest clothes and be whoever you think you are, but when you’re on those streets, you’re just in the school of fish.” – Awkafina
73. “Skyscraper National Park.” – Kurt Vonnegut
74. “It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.” – Agatha Christie
75. “Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life.” – Irving Berlin
76. “I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.” – Rick Riordan
77. “The crime problem in New York is getting really serious. The other day the Statue of Liberty had both hands up.” – Jay Leno
78. “On a New York subway, you get fined for spitting, but you can throw up for nothing.” – Lewis Grizzard
78. “New York may be overcrowded and overpriced, but it’s the only place you can get a good bacon, egg and cheese.” – Samantha Oppenheimer
79. “New York is the only city in the world where you can get run down on the sidewalk by a pedestrian.” – Russell Baker
80. “Someone asked me for directions, so you can call me a real New Yorker.”
READ: Where to find the best NY bagels
New York City Puns
81. “Finally made it to the Statue of Liberty. It’s a boat time!”
82. “Winter in NYC is snow joke.”
83. “A trip to New York takes quite a bit of dough.”
84. “I got these Statue of Liberty tickets from my Ferry Godmother.”
85. “New York stole a pizza my heart.”
86. “New York hot dogs are total weiners.”
87. “After a day of sightseeing, I’m Central Park-ing myself here for the night.”
88. “Central Park always perks me up.”
89. “The Statue of Liberty was ahead of her time. You can tell because she already had a tablet.”
90. “A trip to NYC can be very taxi-ng on your wallet.”
91. “Stop Yankee-ng my chain.”
92. “I’m so glad we MET.”
93. “New York’s Chinatown has the best dim sum; it’s rice to have some variety.”
94. “I ordered a Manhattan, but it looks like the bartender decided to take a liberty with my drink.”
READ: Best museums in NYC
Best Sex And The City Quotes
95. “Men in their forties are like The New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. Tricky, complicated, and you’re never really sure you’ve got the right answer.” – Mr. Big
96. “If Louis was right, and you only get one great love, New York may just be mine. And I can’t have nobody talking nonsense about my boyfriend.” – Carrie Bradshaw
97. “When I first moved to New York, I bought Vogue instead of dinner. I just felt it fed me more.” – Carrie Bradshaw
98. “In New York, you’re always looking for a job, apartment, or a boyfriend.” – Carrie Bradshaw
99. “I’ve spent $40,000 on shoes and I have no place to live? I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoes!” – Carrie Bradshaw
100. “So maybe it won’t look like you thought it would in high school, but it’s important to remember that love is possible. Anything is possible. This is New York.” – Carrie Bradshaw
101. Carrie: “New York Magazine says Brooklyn is the new Manhattan.” Miranda: “Yes, but whoever wrote that lives in Brooklyn.” – Sex and the City
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We hope this guide featuring New York quotes helps with inspiring your trip to the Big Apple!
Please let us know if you have any questions about New York City quotes or any upcoming trip in the comments below.
Happy Travels,
Mark and Kristen
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Mark and Kristen Morgan are travel, hiking and photography experts. Over the last 6 years traveling full time, they have explored more than 40 countries and 30 US states.
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