“I've never felt more American than I did when I moved to England. It becomes a real kind of part of your identity: "Oh, Ben. He's the American guy." I think when you say you're from New York you get a different reception then if you just say, "I'm American." So I'd always kind of make sure I was a New Yorker first.” IfsThinkingFirstsKindDifferentRealGuyFeltNew YorkIdentityEnglandMovedNew YorkersReceptionAmerican Guys Author:Ben Schnetzer
“It's fascinating. It's also exhilarating when you see people making the exact same choices that you've made. It kind of validates what you've decided to do. I saw a wonderful production of Jessica Lange doing Streetcar with Alec Baldwin. It was gorgeous. It's a measure of what a great classic that is, that our Cate Blanchett also did an absolute amazing Blanche in Sydney, as well as in New York.” PeopleWellsKindMadeChoicesSawsWonderfulNew YorkDecidedAbsolutesProductionsMade ItClassicFascinatingGorgeousExhilaratingSydneyJessicaBlanche Author:Jacki Weaver
“It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection. None of my family members came from this world.” ThinkingWorldWantKindReasonAbleCan DoNiceNew YorkExampleThis WorldMembersMy FamilyConnectionsMovedVery GoodFamily MembersGood ExamplesPrerequisitesDo Whatever You Want Author:Jason Wu
“The violence in New York feels really mundane and banal to me. Whereas in the privacy of one's own home, say, like the farm I grew up on in Vermont, the kinds of things that can happen seem much more extreme. Maybe because it's more personal. Or maybe because you block out the things that happen in the city. But it's like seeing things born, live, die, fall apart, and start over again, without any intermediary clean-up steps from some corporate organization.” FeelsKindHomeSeemsHappensDiesFallBornCitiesStepsViolenceSeeingNew YorkGrewGrew UpOrganizationCleanExtremesBlockCorporatePrivacyFarmsFalling ApartStarting OverMundaneVermont Author:Elizabeth Neel
“In terms of theater, there's not a more supportive theater community than in New York. It's really kind of a real thrill to go there. I mean, don't forget, I'm a boy from the suburbs of Sydney, so getting to New York is a huge, huge thrill.” KindMeanRealTermCommunityForgetBoysNew YorkHugeTheaterThrillSupportiveSuburbsSydney Author:Hugh Jackman
“New York has always been a sense of eclectic kind of freedom and expression on a lot of different levels.” KindDifferentLevelsNew YorkExpressionDifferent LevelsEclectic Author:Sandra Bernhard
“When I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world... all those big buildings. I remember walking on Broadway, looking up at this huge, mountainous place-and being so lonely. But things started to clear up when I met a few people on the street whom I'd met before-all of a sudden there got to be a certain familiarity about the place, and the terror kind of evaporated. There was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I'd known.” PeopleWorldFirstsKindDifferentBigsRememberCertainCoursesCitiesKnownClearStreetsNew YorkBuildingHugeWalkingMetsLonelyTerrorCrowdsBroadwayFamiliarityNew YorkersCities In The WorldSo Lonely Author:Benny Goodman
“Whether it is an attempt to bomb the New York City subway system, an attempt to bring down an airplane over Detroit, an attempt to set off a bomb in Times Square ... I think that gives us a sense of the breadth of the challenges that we face, and the kinds of things that our enemy is trying to do.” ThinkingGivingTryingKindFacesChallengesCitiesEnemyNew YorkBombsNew York CitySquaresAirplaneDetroitSubwayBreadthTimes Square Author:Eric Holder
“The greatest inspiration I draw upon is, is this city (New York) and riding the subway and watching people and I find that's kind of like the best, the best acting teacher. You know, I wonder, like people who have huge celebrity, sometimes I feel bad, should this be one of their methods 'cause I don't know how they can observe life anymore, because they become the observed. So, I, I appreciate that New York can still do that.” PeopleKnowsFeelsShouldKindStillsSometimesInspirationCausesActingCitiesWonderKnow HowTeacherNew YorkHugeDrawsAppreciateMethodRidingSubwayBest ActingActing Teachers Author:Amy Ryan
“I always had some kind of creative side and technical side, and I thought architecture might be the way to combine them, so I went to architecture school in New York.” WayKindMightSchoolSidesCreativeNew YorkArchitectureArchitecture School Author:Joseph Kosinski
“Toronto I've worked in so many times so you kind of just know every store, every hotel, every - it's really close to New York so it's awesome for my children so if I have to go home for two days it doesn't take very much time. Except for Air Canada. Air Canada is the worst part.” IfsKnowsKindChildrenTwoHomeAirWorstNew YorkStoresMy ChildrenCanadaHotelTwo DaysToronto Author:Mary-Louise Parker
“I always find it kind of embarrassing, kind of funny, and kind of exciting. In New York I'm recognized a lot, although nobody says anything. You know, they stare at you just a second too long. But in Paris it's not as commonplace to be recognized.” KnowsKindLongNew YorkExcitingStaringParisSay AnythingEmbarrassingCornyCommonplace Author:Marc Jacobs
“I grew up in New York. We were all diversified, as far as music was concerned. I grew up liking just about everything. So I tried to incorporate that into my playing, although the original school where I came from was Afro-Cuban music. But I liked all kinds of music -- I tried to bring that into everything.” KindSchoolNew YorkGrewGrew UpConcernedOriginalsAll KindsCubanAfrosCuban Music Author:Don Alias
“I've been in radio, God, twenty years. I started as a stand-up comedian. I wanted to be Carol Burnett when I was growing up. Radio was just kind of an accident. I did morning radio in my hometown of Buffalo, then went to Rochester, then Chicago, and then New York.” YearsKindWantedMorningGrowing UpGrowingNew YorkTwentiesRadioAccidentsComedianChicagoHometownCarolsBuffaloStand Up ComedianRochester Author:Stephanie Miller
“You know, in Los Angeles, you're constantly in your car, you're sealed up, you're not walking around. Whereas in New York, after a while, all your stuff is kind of public, in one way or the other. I'm not saying either one of those is bad; they're both great for a very specific kind of comedian. And I'm glad that they both exist.” KnowsWayKindStuffCarNew YorkWalkingGladOne WayComedianLos Angeles Author:Patton Oswalt
“I think the kind of person that gravitates toward New York is a person that's not so much focused on controlling exactly how they appear and how they exit. They're more fascinated with the process.” ThinkingKindPersonsProcessNew YorkFocusedFascinatedExit Author:Patton Oswalt
“For example, when I was writing Leviathan, which was written both in New York and in Vermont - I think there were two summers in Vermont, in that house I wrote about in Winter Journal, that broken-down house... I was working in an out-building, a kind of shack, a tumble-down, broken-down mess of a place, and I had a green table. I just thought, "Well, is there a way to bring my life into the fiction I'm writing, will it make a difference?" And the fact is, it doesn't make any difference. It was a kind of experiment which couldn't fail.” ThinkingWayWritingWellsKindTwoFactsHouseDifferencesFictionFailingWrittenNew YorkExampleBuildingBrokenSummerTablesGreenWinterExperimentsMessMaking A DifferenceJournalBroken DownVermontShackLeviathan Author:Paul Auster
“I started as an artist and I had a side job moving some heavy boxes for a publishing company. They had just gotten a Mac for their art department, the department that creates the book covers. I was kind of showing the art director a thing or two about how to use a Mac. And one day everyone went out to lunch and I jumped on the computer and designed a book jacket and slipped it in the pile to go to the review board in New York. They picked my jacket and when the art director got back to Boston, he wanted to know who designed it and I said, "Me." He was like, "The box guy?"” KnowsKindArtSaidTwoBookUseWantedJobsMovingArtistGuySidesCompanyNew YorkOne DayDirectorsComputerBoxesHeavyBoardsDepartmentReviewsLunchPublishingBostonJacketsMacsBook CoversArt Director Author:Biz Stone
“I think I can work anywhere, but you don't get the same kind of inspiration everywhere. New York theater has become a big inspiration for me. I only started writing for the stage myself because I like to see the good, mostly off-Broadway plays in New York.” ThinkingWritingKindI CanPlayBigsInspirationStageNew YorkTheaterBroadway Author:Daniel Kehlmann
“I was always around people who were in the business from the time I was an absolute baby. I grew up in New York City, and my parents, my sister, and I had a house on Fire Island, and they were part of a set of people that were all close and friendly, most of whom were involved in show business in one regard or another. So it was always familiar to me, and I kind of enjoyed it.” PeopleKindShowsHouseParentCitiesFireNew YorkBabyGrewInvolvedGrew UpAbsolutesRegardFamiliarEnjoyedIslandsFriendlyNew York CityMy SisterShow Business Author:Fred Melamed
“I'll never forget reading Chekhov's "A Doctor's Visit" on a train to Hawthorne, New York, and I got to the end - the scene where the patient says goodbye to the doctor and she puts a flower in her hair as a kind of thank you to him - and I felt like a cowboy shot from a canyon's top. This is a different experience from reading a novel, I think. The emotional effect is cumulative. Let's just hope market forces don't send short fiction the way of the dinosaur, because their sales are paltry compared to the novel and this is truly unfortunate.” ThinkingWayKindDifferentEndsReadingForceFeltForgetFictionNovelEffectsNew YorkEmotionalFlowerHairSceneShotsDoctorsTrainPatientGoodbyeNever ForgetUnfortunateCowboySaying GoodbyeDinosaursCanyonsCumulativeDifferent ExperiencesChekhovHawthorne Author:Adam Ross
“Being in New York and having worked at Time Out New York and then being at Time, living in New York for a long time has helped because I know everybody. And they're the people who call me and give me jobs. So that kind of real networking, which is just living in a place and having jobs where people around you are extremely successful, has helped me tremendously.” PeopleKnowsGivingKindLongRealJobsSuccessfulNew YorkLong TimeGive MeCall MeNetworking Author:Joel Stein
“The New York Times is an institution that attracts careerists, who are drawn to power and access. This gave me a kind of a free hand. The kind of work that I wanted to do, most of the other reporters didn't want to do. I was not doing lunch. I was not sucking up to officials. I was writing from the street.” WantWritingKindHandsWantedStreetsNew YorkInstitutionsAccessOfficialsLunchReportersNew York Times Author:Chris Hedges
“Basically, there's a good friend of mine who works at EMI Publishing, a publishing company. He had asked me - he was like, you know, do you know this girl, Amy Winehouse? She's in New York for a day. She's kind of meeting people to maybe work with on her second album.” PeopleKnowsKindGirlCompanyNew YorkMinesLike YouMeetingsAlbumsDo You KnowPublishingGood FriendAmyThis Girl Author:Mark Ronson
“I don't necessarily notice too much of a change in the sense of the kind of matches that I have in say a Los Angeles as opposed to a New York City. The big difference that I notice, and this is what all love as New York city and Philadelphia has treated me fantastically, but man, you cannot screw up in Philadelphia and New York.” MenKindBigsDifferencesCitiesToo MuchNew YorkTreatedLos AngelesNew York CityScrewsPhiladelphiaScrew Ups Author:Adam Cole
“When I walk around New York now, there are so many ghosts. I find it very uncomfortable. There were many hard years, and I never really achieved any kind of comfortable financial success, so I just associate it with struggle. When I had a chance to get out, I was elated.” YearsKindHardChanceWalksStruggleNew YorkComfortableFinancialGhostUncomfortableAssociatesFinancial Success Author:Michael Gira
“If there were, say, only 10 percent of the hotels that exist now, there would be all these apartments for people who live in New York, as opposed to people visiting New York. And then all this junk in the theater, we would no longer need the kind of stuff that tourists like.” PeopleIfsNeedsKindWould BeStuffNew YorkPercentTheaterHotelApartmentJunkTouristsVisiting Author:Fran Lebowitz
“In New York we have zillions of different kinds of people, many of them hate each other, but violence based on that hatred is really uncommon here.” PeopleKindDifferentHateViolenceNew YorkHatredDifferent KindsUncommon Author:Fran Lebowitz
“It used to be, if you wanted to have a strong, influential voice in the feminist movement, you really needed to be part of this New York/D.C. elite group of feminists, or part of a mainstream feminist organization. And now it's kind of an amazing thing that you can just start a blog and put your voice out there and build your readership.” IfsKindWantedUsedStrongVoiceGroupsNew YorkMovementNeededOrganizationFeministUsed To BeElitesMainstreamBlogsInfluentialAmazing ThingsReadershipFeminist Movement Author:Jessica Valenti
“When I did get married, and specifically after I got married and the New York Times style section featured my wedding in the vows column, which is really traditionally kind of seen as an elitist column, and it is, but I was happy to be in it. I thought it was good that they were covering a feminist wedding.” KindStyleNew YorkMarriedFeministSectionsVowCoveringColumnsNew York TimesElitist Author:Jessica Valenti
“I've liked the Yankees since I was a kid. I grew up in Canada so I kind of identified with New York sports teams.” KindKidsSportsTeamNew YorkGrewGrew UpCanadaYankeesSports Team Author:Ian Astbury
“Donald Trump is not stupid. He knows exactly what he's saying. And he's just saying out there - I mean, forget about Muslims. He said I could go down on Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot someone in the face and people - and the voters will have no problem with it. This transcends any kind of religion and any kind of belief. This is actually an offense and attack on human values. He's just saying out there I will shoot people in the face and people wouldn't care.” PeopleKnowsHumansKindMeanSaidProblemCareFacesValuesBeliefForgetStupidNew YorkTrumpVotersOffenseNo ProblemFifthAvenuesJust SayingHuman ValuesNot StupidFifth Avenue Author:Bassem Youssef
“I went to the University of Minnesota to study art. I left the university to come to New York and live in Soho. I got involved with like a small kind of like experimental theater-mime company and we discovered that Étienne Decroux, a great mime, was still teaching in Paris so I went to study with him for several years.” YearsKindArtStillsLeftCompanyStudyTeachingNew YorkInvolvedTheaterUniversityAll KindsParisMinnesotaMimeSoho Author:Jessica Lange
“Ralph Kramden, as played by Jackie Gleason, was this big bumbling New York City bus driver who was kind of mean and crass and a little bit egotistical. But underneath it all, he was a big heart looking for a place to land I think.” ThinkingHeartKindMeanLittlesBigsBitsCitiesLandNew YorkLittle BitDriversBusNew York CityEgotisticalJackieBig HeartCrassBus DriverCity Bus Author:George Saunders
“When I first started, it was the real basic stuff that was being played on the radio, so I was into Zeppelin, and Sabbath, and AC/DC, and all stuff like that. I grew up in New York, on Long Island, so the local radio stations played all that kind of thing.” FirstsKindLongRealStuffNew YorkGrewGrew UpRadioLocalsIslandsStationsSabbathZeppelinsRadio StationsLong IslandBeing Played Author:John Petrucci
“There was [ in New York] - some of it was this perception of the Midwest that I realized in this multicultural city that - and I don't think it's as true as it was - but everyone was kind of like, what, are you Jewish? Are you Italian? What are you? You know, are you black? Are you da-da-da? Are you Puerto Rican? And so I ended up - my ethnic identity was Midwestern, was white bread. And so it informed a lot of my stand-up.” ThinkingKnowsKindBlackWhiteCitiesNew YorkIdentityPerceptionI RealizedBreadItalianMulticulturalMidwestWhite BreadEthnic Identity Author:Jim Gaffigan