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'Humans of New York' wasn't the result of a fully finished idea that I thought of and then executed; it was an evolution. There were hundreds of tiny evolutions that came from me loving photography.

'Humans of New York' is basically somebody walking up to absolute strangers on the street every day and, within minutes, talking with them about very personal things. Some things they haven't even told their best friends or family members.

Given New York City's cultural diversity, it has always attracted creative people.

Manhattan seems pretty developed, you know what I mean? Like, it has peaked in culture.

'The New Yorker' didn't invent the magazine cartoon, but it did really establish it.

I love how New York as an idea is less a paradigm of manifest destiny and more a romance for the social orphans of the world. We live here to be among the towers and the crowds.

There is not one New York but thousands - mixed-up conurbations and microclimates with their own internal logics and charms, dreams and juxtapositions, faces and tongues.

I think the kind of person that gravitates toward New York is a person that's not so much focused on controlling exactly how they appear and how they exit. They're more fascinated with the process.

The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it's people from all over the world.

I think New York has evolved in my work just the way the city has.