William John Wills Quotes

I feel no compunction to defend L.A. People criticize it, and for the most part, it's well-founded.

Boy, I wouldn't want to live in L.A.

I would never want to move to L.A.

The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo.

For me, I coin Austin as being kind of a baby brother to L.A. Because it's pretty much the same thing; L.A. is just amplified to the nth degree.

I like L.A., but I shouldn't live there.

The suburbs of yesterday do not look at all like the suburbs of today.

London is the greatest city in the world, but we're at a crossroads. Ordinary Londoners have been priced out of our city because of the housing crises. We're a city that's growing in population, but the infrastructure can't cope with the growth.

I don't particularly like L.A.

Our engineering departments build freeways which destroy a city or a landscape, in the process.

In general, I don't like L.A. all that much, but it has wonderful parts.

I like San Francisco, but I don't think I'd want to work in Palo Alto. It seems like a pretty rough commute. In many ways, I think New York has a lot of things the West Coast doesn't have.

The model of the human habitat dictated by zoning is a formless, soul-less, centerless, demoralizing mess. It bankrupts families and townships. It disables whole classes of decent, normal citizens. It ruins the air we breathe. It corrupts and deadens our spirit.

Overcrowded cities are spawning increasingly lawless suburbs. Waste is accumulating in and around them, straining the capacity to deal with it.

The Dallas model, prominent in the South and Southwest, sees a growing population as a sign of urban health. Cities liberally permit housing construction to accommodate new residents. The Los Angeles model, common on the West Coast and in the Northeast Corridor, discourages growth by limiting new housing.

The newspapers were against me. They were telling me that the Australian dream was a home. But that dream became worse and worse as they had to live further away from the city. My dream became better as we could build higher and higher.

As an old-time New Yorker, it's not that I miss the '70s and '80s or whatever. I miss the fact that there was a certain kind of energy that exists when people can live for nothing.

L.A.'s a better place to live than it is to visit.

I don't really like New York better than Portland. It's just a different place.

Fifty years ago people were talking about Sydney's sprawl, but nobody does anything about it.

I was attracted to the concept of Hollywood and the lifestyle here. But I've grown to mistrust it because it has changed. I didn't bargain for digital access parking in some concrete structure. Real heaven for me was to drive somewhere and park right in front. Now the city is going vertical.

I could live anywhere in the world I want. But Los Angeles is the place to live.

I probably shouldn't live in New York.

I'm definitely bicoastal, but I have to say, it's easier to live in New York than in L.A. I feel like people respect other people's space a bit more here.

But I can tell you that the New York that I see now is not the New York that we grew up in. It's not 1973.