"He told me that Patrick's letter, offering the assignment, had begun with the thought that he might 'have fun' writing about New York, and he wanted me to tell him that the project had almost foundered right there. 'Writing is never 'fun,'' he said ominously." p. 9

"To bring New York down to date, a man would have to be published with the speed of light—and not even Harper is that quick." p. 17

"No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky." p. 19

"New York is nothing like Paris; it is nothing like London; and it is not Spokane multiplied by sixty, or Detroit multiplied by four. It is by all odds the loftiest of cities." p. 30

"Mass hysteria is a terrible force, yet New Yorkers seem always to escape it by some tiny margin: they sit in stalled...