New York

by Edward Rutherfurd

And this made me realize that you can live with people all your life, yet not be sure you know them.

“All empires become arrogant. It is their nature.”

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ Novel idea, that last. Sounds like one of Tom Paine’s effusions to me.” “Actually,” James corrected, “it’s adapted from the philosopher Locke. Except he said ‘property’ instead of ‘happiness.’” “Well,” said his father, “property sounds a better investment to me.”

“In war, as in matters of the heart, none of us can be sure how we’ll behave. We do not know ourselves what we may do.”

New York is the true capital of America. Every New Yorker knows it, and by God, we always shall.”

Frank Master didn’t mind a bit of corruption. Give a man’s son a job, and he’ll do you a favor later. Give a theater manager a tip for a good investment, and he’ll send you tickets for the opening of a new play. These were the kindnesses that made the world go round. Where did corruption become a vice? Hard to say. It was a question of degree.

“It’s a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,”

“They’re good, Mary,” he said. “You try to draw, not what you think you should see, but what you really see.”

“Not everybody’s going to like you,” said Slim.

But then, what man of any age was sensible?

But to Rose, freedom meant responsibility,

“Then I think it is important that your wife should be your friend.”

Money and power were supposed to be the biggest aphrodisiacs, but shared imagination was just as strong, it seemed to him, and lasted longer.

Older men seem interesting, because they know things. But they may not be so interesting really.”

“You want everyone to be in love with me, Mother.

So many iconic events in modern history had taken place that year, and Charlie Master had not been there to witness and comment upon them. It seemed so unnatural, so wrong.

New York had always been a place for people who wanted more. Whether a poor immigrant or a rich merchant, people came to New York to get more. In bad times they came there to survive, in good times to prosper, and in boom times to get rich.

“Everything I do is ephemeral,”

“Don’t you know that there’s another bubble as well? An expectations bubble. Bigger houses, private planes, yachts … stupid salaries and bonuses. People come to desire these things and expect them. But the expectations bubble will burst as well, as all bubbles do.”

“Come to my gallery and I will sell you beautiful things at a more reasonable price. But the point is that they will have value. Things of real beauty, things of the spirit. That is art. New York is full of people like me, and you have missed us. You see only dollars.”

And let’s face it, when you thought of the riots, the brutality, even the prejudices of generations past, New York for all its faults was a far kinder place than ever before in its history.