“In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.”
"Here Is New York," Holiday (1948); reprinted in Here is New York (1949)
Context: The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about but that is in everyone's mind. The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sounds of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.
All dwellers in cities must dwell with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city itself and because, of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority. In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.
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E. B. White 54
American writer 1899–1985Related quotes
Letter to his son, John Quincy Adams (13 November 1816)
1810s
Source: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
No. 381 (17 May 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
“Stop being so…"
"Charming? Attractive? Irresistible?
"I'm going with arrogant.”
Source: Bitter Blood
"The Lees of Happiness"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
Context: It was a marriage of love. He was sufficiently spoiled to be charming; she was ingenuous enough to be irresistible. Like two floating logs they met in a head-on rush, caught, and sped along together.
On a child doing homework near the family’s television set, in Roger’s Version (1986)
"Demonstrations over Islamic centre held in New York" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11274010, BBC, 11 September 2010.
2010s
“Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book -and does”