1
Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?Betty Smith
2
Men were good for one thing only. Killing spiders. Other than that, I was on my own. It was sad though. Where was the chivalry of yesteryear?Kate Carlisle
3
I had to say it gave me a warm feeling to picture Meredith Winslow spending twenty years or so in an ill fitting orange jumpsuit, cozying up to a great big girl named BeulahKate Carlisle
4
He'd once explained that when he was a boy his very proper parents had forbidden him and his brothers to curse in the house so 'feather buckets' was the young boys coded way of saying 'f*ck itKate Carlisle
5
As a teenager in Brooklyn Quentin had often imagined himself engaged in martial heroics, but after this he knew, as a cold immutable fact, that he would do anything necessary, sacrificing whatever or whomever he had to, to avoid risking exposure to physical violence. Shame never came into it. He embraced his new identity as a coward. He would run in the other direction. He would lie down and cry and put his arms over his head or play dead. It didn't matter what he had to do, he would do it and be glad.Lev Grossman
6
I had a blind date with a dentist – and he told me to come back in six months.Joan Rivers
7
People say it is not the key to happiness, but I have always figured if you have enough money you can have a key made.Joan Rivers
8
I said, "Is there! " I told him there is a Mafia school where they teach them math – if Johnny has ten fingers and they cut off two, how many does he have left?Joan Rivers
9
Somehow, some way, every person in the arts has to find an accommodation with disappointment and embarrassment. They are the pollen in the air we breathe.Joan Rivers
10
It gathers emotionally inside you, in a strange way a by-product of struggle, of a willingness to do anything, try anything, expose yourself to anything – staying in motion because sooner or later those ripples will cause change.Joan Rivers
11
Laughing made me feel safe. I was not going to be enveloped by the seediness that coated this world like dust.Joan Rivers
12
When you begin to losing your audience, do not get loud; get quiet, make them find you and come back to you.Joan Rivers
13
I am driven. Being driven is my energy source. It is my fun.… I believe that where there is action, there is movement, and those ripples will eventually produce something positive.Joan Rivers
14
The revelation that personal truth can be the foundation of comedy, that outrageousness can be cleansing and healthy…Joan Rivers
15
The act of creation fascinates me. You can only sit with blank page and wait. You cannot press a button, cannot program it.Joan Rivers
16
Everything comes out of smoke and mist and nothingness, a mystical happening…Joan Rivers
17
Liked" was the kiss of death. "Loved" or "hated" interested him. At least the performer had aroused emotion.Joan Rivers
18
Maybe that is why in my comedy I try and puncture the hypocrisy all around us, why it is almost a crusade with me to strip life down to what really is true.Joan Rivers
19
…but I think comedy is more aggressive than that. It is a medium for revenge. We can deflate and punish the pomposity and the rejection which hurt us. Comedy is power.Joan Rivers
20
…you either do or do not have a comedy mind, whatever that is, maybe a heightened sense of the ridiculous and the absurdity of life… We are all crazy and crazed.Joan Rivers
21
Your technique means nothing if you're not using your talents for the betterment of humanity.Gene Dunn
22
Even the worst things about Devonairre Street are better than the rest of the city.Corey Ann Haydu
23
Well, I didn't really know what to say. So maybe I should say that I have thought about you and I like you, I like seeing you, I care for you and maybe I love you too. And the next time if you tell me you love me, I'll--" She stopped." You'll what?"" I'll say I love you too.Unknown
24
Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.Jonathan Lethem
25
When the Brooklyn rain comes downhopefully it will be to fuckin' wake you upJulian Gallo
26
To people from 'Brooklyn-Brooklyn' North Brooklyn is really just South Queens.Dallas Athent
27
They pine for the hip, frosty girlfriend they abandoned for a pleasant if unexciting marriage to her sunnier, less mentally present sister coast.Sari Botton
28
His laugh and his voice were both pleasant. He talked the way New Yorkers used to talk before they learned to talk Flatbush.Raymond Chandler
29
Oh, Williamsburg. There was a point when you seemed like a scary, tough neighborhood, but now it's obvious that the graffiti on your walls gets put there by art students.Imogen Binnie
30
It happened every single day in Brooklyn: awaken to fresh glory, fall asleep to blight and ruin.Kate Christensen