Quotessence
Home / Topics / New Orleans Quotes

New Orleans Quotes

Browse 469 quotes about New Orleans.

Related topics

CitiesPeopleIfsWayThinkingKnowsYearsStatesHurricanesJazzBeautifulHas BeensKatrinaWorldAmericaFirstsHomeKindLouisianaPlayTwoUnitedUnited StatesHouseWantedLittlesSaidStreetsWaterCountryFeelsKidsLevelsLooksTryingBlackCommunityFrench QuarterHappenedHeardHeartNew YorkQuartersRebuildingSeaSpiritAirArtCultureGivingGrowing UpHurricane KatrinaImportantJobsLongMadeMeanMenNightStoriesThreeWantWellsChicagoCoastCreoleHalfHoursIdeasMayPastPoorRealRunningSan FranciscoShowsSoundTodayTogetherTownsWriting

New Orleans Quotes

“New Orleans invented the brown paper bag party - usually at a gathering in a home - where anyone darker than the bag attached to the door was denied entrance. The brown bag criterion survives as a metaphor for how the black cultural elite quite literally establishes caste along color lines within black life.”

HomeBlackLinesPartyDoorsColorPaperMetaphorBrownBagsDeniedElitesGatheringNew OrleansCriteriaEntrancesCastesBlack LivesPaper Bags
Author:Michael Eric Dyson
Create image

“...I doubt very seriously whether anyone will hire me.' What do you mean, babe? You a fine boy with a good education.' Employers sense in me a denial of their values.' He rolled over onto his back. 'They fear me. I suspect that they can see that I am forced to function in a century I loathe. This was true even when I worked for the New Orleans Public Library.”

MeanValuesWorkBoysDoubtCenturyFineFunctionLibraryDenialSuspectsNew OrleansEmployersBabeLoathePublic LibraryGood EducationFear Me
Book:A Confederacy of Dunces
Create image

“I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.”

MenWritingArtTwoSoulArtistOrderFiveWeekEatingDrinkingMythBarsRememberedStomachLeisureRootedCentsCandyNew OrleansStarvingWhiskeyStarvationLiving OnSteakPintsNickelsHoaxesCandy BarStarving Artist
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image

“When I am introduced as someone from New Orleans, people sometimes say: "I'm so sorry." New Orleans. I'm so sorry. That's not the way it was before,not the way it's supposed to be. When people find out you're from New Orleans, they're supposed to tell you about how they got drunk there once, or fell in love there, or first heard the music there that changed their lives. At worst people would say: "I've always wanted to go there." But now, it's just: "I'm sorry." Man, that kills me. That just kills me.”

PeopleMenWayFirstsSometimesWantedHeardWorstChangedSorryDrunkSupposed To BeI'm SorryNew OrleansKill MeI'm So SorrySorry Men
Book:1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina
Create image

“... I tried to end our little duel. I called out pacifying words; I entreated; I finally surrendered. Still Clyde came, my pirate costume so great a success that it had apparently convinced him that we were back in the golden days of romantic old New Orleans when gentlemen decided matters of hot dog honor at twenty paces”

LittlesStillsEndsMatterDogHonorDecidedTwentiesHotConvincedGoldenGentlemanPaceCostumesNew OrleansPirateHot DogGolden Days
Book:A Confederacy of Dunces
Create image

“I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

WorldHumansSoulYoungTurnsSleepKnownHeardBloodSingingBuiltFlowRiversRaisedAncientGoldenMy SoulDawnSunsetVeinsNew OrleansBosomsCongoPyramidsMississippiMuddyHutsAbeNile
Author:Langston Hughes
Create image

“Nick was dressed in jeans, a dark green sweater, and bomber jacket–the perfect image of a rich college student. Talon looked like a biker who had just left Sanctuary, New Orleans’s premier biker bar. Acheron looked like a refugee from the Dungeon–the local underground goth hangout. Valerius was the professional contingent, and Zarek…Zarek just looked like he was ready to kill something.’ (Talon)”

LeftDarkPerfectRichStudentsCollegeReadyGreenBarsLocalsJeansRefugeeNew OrleansJacketsSanctuarySweatersDungeonsGothBombersBikersCollege StudentsTalons
Book:Night Pleasures/Night Embrace
Create image

“But during all these years I had a vague but persistent desire to return to New Orleans. I never forgot New Orleans. And when we were in tropical places and places of those flowers and trees that grow in Louisiana, I would think of it acutely and I would feel for my home the only glimmer of desire I felt for anything outside my endless pursuit of art.”

ThinkingFeelsYearsArtHomeDesireGrowsFeltTreeFlowerReturnPursuitEndlessVaguePersistentNew OrleansLouisianaTropical
Author:Anne Rice
Create image

“The oyster was an animal worthy of New Orleans, as mysterious and private and beautiful as the city itself. If one could accept that oysters build their houses out of their lives, one could imagine the same of New Orleans, whose houses were similarly and resolutely shuttered against an outside world that could never be trusted to show proper sensitivity toward the oozing delicacies within.”

IfsWorldShowsBeautifulHouseAnimalCitiesAcceptingImagineWorthyMysteriousTrustedSensitivityNew OrleansOutside WorldOystersDelicacy
Author:Tom Robbins
Create image

“When I got to college, the fake ID thing wasn't that important, since pretty much everyone could get away with drinking in New Orleans. But the drugs, well, that was a different story altogether, because drugs are every bit as illegal in New Orleans as anywhere else--at least, if you're black and poor, and have the misfortune of doing your drugs somewhere other than the dorms at Tulane University. But if you are lucky enough to be living at Tulane, which is a pretty white place, especially contrasted with the city where it's located, which is 65 percent black, then you are absolutely set.”

IfsWellsImportantDifferentEnoughStoriesBitsBlackWhitePoorCitiesCollegeDrugLuckyPercentDrinkingUniversityFakeGet AwayIllegalMisfortunesNew OrleansDorms
Author:Tim Wise
Create image

“The first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds - the cemeteries - and they're a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here. Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchres- palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay - ghosts of women and men who have sinned and who've died and are now living in tombs. The past doesn't pass away so quickly here. You could be dead for a long time”

MenTryingFirstsLongMadePastOrderSleepColdQuietLong TimeMen And WomenDiedGhostSymbolsBest ThingsGreekDecayPropositionsNew OrleansTombsPassing AwayCemeteryBuryingMausoleumSigns And Symbols
Book:Chronicles
Create image

“there was something about that city, though it didn't let me feel guilty that I had no feeling for the things so many others needed. it let me alone. sitting up in my bed the lights out, hearing the outside sounds, lifting my cheap bottle of wine, letting the warmth of the grape enter me as I heard the rats moving about the room, I preferred them to humans. being lost, being crazy maybe is not so bad if you can be that way undisturbed. New Orleans gave me that. nobody ever called my name.”

IfsWayFeelsHumansFeelingsLightMovingNamesLostSoundRoomsCitiesHeardCrazyNeededBedSittingLet MeWineHearingGuiltyBottlesWarmthRatsNew OrleansLiftingGrapesMe AloneBeing CrazyBottles Of WineSitting Up
Author:Charles Bukowski
Create image