Bette Midler Quotes

I would come to L.A. for a job, but I love New York.

I was born in L.A., but raised in New York.

After spending 22 years in Ohio, I love everything about New York.

My first job in the States was as a junior fashion editor at 'Harper's Bazaar,' which I enjoyed, but not for all that long because I was fired by the editor in chief, who told me that I was too 'European.'

L.A. will never, ever, ever, ever be my town. It'll never be my town. It's not New York.

New York is my home. L.A. is my work.

I've never really felt at home in L.A. I've only been here to work, and then I immediately go back to New York.

When I was living in New York, I tried to make it work for a year, but I didn't really have my own space to be creative. It was really inspiring, but I think that coming to L.A. has allowed me to take a breath.

Being able to move to New York - that was a dream come true.

My dream is to play in the MLS maybe, because I love the lifestyle in America. Doesn't matter - New York, L.A. - I want the big city.

There is something distinctive about living in New York; over eight million other people are doing it.

Believe me, it's always a lot harder on the guy getting fired.

The utter insanity of living in a place like this doesn't occur to the 9,000,000 people who inhabit New York. Except for visits I think I shall not be here any more as a resident.

[On living in New York City:] I'm oblivious to everything. I just don't notice anything. I sat in a coffee shop, drank half a cup of coffee before I noticed there was lipstick on the cup. There was wadded-up gum and lipstick on the napkin. I must have been sitting on that woman's lap for an hour.

I never quit. I just got fired.

I love New York. You're never alone, but you're always on your own.

New Yorkers are born all over the country, and then they come to New York City and it hits them: Oh, that’s who I am.

Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It's sterile. It's nothing. It's wasting your life, and people do not wish to waste their lives once they've seen New York! This rural American thing - I'm telling you, it's a joke.

Moving to New York was the best decision I ever made.

I moved to New York when I was almost 21 and I've lived there for almost eight years, now I have a totally different relationship to L.A. There's like all this space and it's so beautiful seeing all these different landscapes and all my friends are here so now I really like it so much but my adjustment period was a little like "What a strange town".

I am a New Yorker. I like New York. And I like cities. And it's not my desire to make New York more suburban. I would personally just like to vet each person.

However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass. Do they know what they’re missing? Uh huh.

New York, it's people. It's grit. It's diversity of people. It's diversity of industry. In L.A. everyone's looking over their shoulder because one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills just walked in. They value the wrong things.

That's the problem with living in New York. You've got no New York to run away to.

I stayed in L.A. long enough to get on my feet, and then I moved back to New York. The reason I moved here was that I don't feel warm outside of a city; it's too barren in the suburbs, and L.A. is a suburb. Here, it felt active.