“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
“I think it is all about creating characters, mixing them up with the stars and the light-years, and coming back to Earth, because we're from this universe. We're not just New York or London; we're stars.” ThinkingYearsCharacterLightEarthUniverseStarsNew YorkCreatingLondonComing BackMixingLight YearsCreating Characters Author:Benjamin Clementine
“The other day I read that last year 58 million tourists came to New York ... where a puny eight million people are trying to live. Unless they own a hotel chain, I don't think a single one of these eight million people are happy about this.” PeopleThinkingTryingYearsLastsMillionsNew YorkEightChainsHotelLast YearTourists Author:Fran Lebowitz
“A lot of people realize "I don't have to work in this job that I'm miserable at every year, or every day, and I don't have to live in, for example, New York City where it's super expensive and if I live somewhere else that is less expensive and could pursue my passion like, I can afford to do that."” PeopleIfsYearsI CanJobsPassionRealizingCitiesNew YorkExamplePursueMiserableExpensiveNew York CitySomewhere ElseMy Passion Author:Tony Hsieh
“I ended up training only for four years before I was accepted into American Ballet Theater in New York City.” YearsCitiesFourNew YorkTrainingTheaterAcceptedNew York CityBalletFour Years Author:Misty Copeland
“The idea of the book ["The Japanese Lover"] came in a conversation that I had with a friend walking in the streets of New York. We were talking about our mothers, and I was telling her how old my mother was, and she was telling me about her mother. Her mother was Jewish, and she said that she was in a retirement home and that she had had a friend for 40 years that was a Japanese gardener. This person had been very important in my friend's upbringing.” YearsPersonsSaidImportantBookIdeasHomeMotherTalkingStreetsNew YorkLoversWalkingConversationMy FriendsRetirementGardenerUpbringingRetirement Homes Author:Isabel Allende
“I spent three years researching American Rose, research that included connecting with Gypsy's sister, the late actress June Havoc (I was the last person to interview her) and Gypsy's son, and also spending countless hours immersed in Gypsy's expansive archives at the New York Public Library. I became obsessed with figuring out the person behind the persona.” YearsPersonsLastsThreeHoursBehindsNew YorkSonLateResearchRoseLibrarySpendingActressesObsessedInterviewsThree YearsConnectingJunePersonaGypsyPublic LibraryArchivesHavoc Author:Karen Abbott
“It was sort of in the jam-band era and it was at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester [New York], right where I grew up. I actually went back there a couple years ago when I was on tour for Kroll Show. I performed at that theater, which was really cool to go back to the first place I'd gone to a concert.” YearsFirstsShowsGoneNew YorkGrewCoupleBandGrew UpYears AgoTheaterTheatreErasConcertsJamReally CoolPortCapitol Author:Nick Kroll
“I was raised in New York and spent two years in Rio. My parents met at the University of Southern Mississippi, and they had me there, and then we moved to New York. I'm not very familiar with Mississippi.” YearsTwoParentNew YorkMetsMovedRaisedUniversityFamiliarTwo YearsSouthernMississippiRio Author:Fred Armisen
“These big Silicon Valley companies that are popping up are projecting growth skyrocketing in a few years. So they need a space they can grow into. Not so much in New York. Super conservative, super small.” NeedsYearsBigsGrowsGrowthSpaceCompanyNew YorkConservativeValleysSiliconSilicon ValleyPopping Author:James Pearse Connelly
“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
“The idea for Anthem the play began over twenty years ago. I was assisting in the production of another Ayn Rand work, Ideal. I moved to New York and began working on producing the play with my partners. And as a way to raise money to cover some venture debt, we decided to stage Anthem for a limited run at the Lex Theatre in Hollywood.” WayYearsIdeasPlayRunningStageNew YorkIdealsYears AgoDecidedHollywoodTwentiesRaisesMovedProductionsDebtTheatrePartnersVentureAnthemAssisting Author:Jeff Britting
“Traveling around, it can get very stressful sometimes, and I found yoga, thank God, like a couple of years ago. I went to my first yoga class, and I got hooked on it, and I go almost every day when I'm in New York. I find that it really balances me. And also, morning meditation.” YearsFirstsSometimesFoundClassMorningMeditationNew YorkCoupleBalanceYogaYears AgoThank GodStressfulHooked Author:Valentina Zelyaeva
“Well we didn't look at it like that. We looked at it: "Why Carolyn Maloney?" Of course, we didn't know about Caroline Kennedy, but we do know and have - this is not against somebody, this is for somebody who we know has had a proven record. It's 16 years in the House, 10 years on the City Council of New York City, that she has shown her determination to pass legislation. She is - she knows how a legislature works.” KnowsYearsWellsLooksCoursesHouseCitiesKnow HowRecordsNew YorkDeterminationNew York CityProvenLegislationCouncilLegislatureCity Council Author:Eleanor Smeal
“Since the late 1970's, the main focus of prisons has been punishment, not rehabilitation. It's hard to believe, but you would be hard-pressed to find a meaningful violence-prevention class in a federal or state penitentiary. And 'we the people' are footing the bill to keep these folks imprisoned. It costs on average $46,000 a year to keep an adult incarcerated in California and about the same for New York State.” PeopleYearsBelieveHas BeensHardStatesWould BeClassFocusViolenceNew YorkCostLateAdultsBillsPrisonAverageFolksMeaningfulPunishmentCaliforniaPreventionRehabilitationHard To BelieveNew York State Author:James Fox
“My first feature film was a movie called 'A Gunfight,' with Kirk Douglas, Johnny Cash, Karen Black, Jane Alexander, Raf Vallone... It was shot in Santa Fe, Mexico, in 1970, and it was directed by Lamont Johnson. It was the first gig I did when I got to California from having done 'Hair' in New York on Broadway for a year. It was a Western, though! But that film was not a successful release.” YearsFirstsDoneFilmBlackSuccessfulNew YorkHairShotsWesternReleaseCaliforniaFeaturesCashMexicoBroadwayJaneSantaGigsJohnsonKirkGunfightsSanta FeRaf Author:Keith Carradine
“In another project I worked on just a few years ago, a staging of Peter and the Wolf, which I translated into Yiddish and sang on a stage in New York City. Thank God very few people knew I was doing it! But the kids in the audience loved it - even though it was all in Yiddish.” PeopleYearsKidsCitiesAudienceStageNew YorkProjectsYears AgoNew York CityThank GodPeterYiddishStaging Author:Maurice Sendak
“When I was in NYU Film School I drove a taxi in New York for two years, I felt like I owned my own business with that little taxi.” YearsLittlesTwoSchoolFilmFeltMy OwnNew YorkTwo YearsTaxiOwn BusinessFilm SchoolNyu Author:Todd Phillips