London is like the tropical bush – if you don’t exercise constant care the jungle, in the shape of the slums, will break in.

John Buchan (1875-1940), The Three Hostages

London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And for that reason it will always have meaning for the future, because of all it can teach about disaster, survival, and redemption. It is all there in the streets.

Anna Quindlen (b.1953), Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City, 2004

London is like a great bird-cage. She, that innocent, gentle and single-hearted, is fluttering in there along with other millions. She can’t get out. She’s at the mercy of any cold-eyed, rapacious brute who will get her into a corner.

Maurice Hewlett (1861–1923), Mrs. Lancelot

London – a place you go to get bronchitis.

Fran Lebowitz, attributed, Dick Enberg’s Humorous Quotes for All Occasions

It’s brilliant, you can’t ever get bored of London ‘cos even if you live here for like a hundred and fifty years you still won’t ever know everything about it. There’s always something new. Like, you’re walking round somewhere you’ve known since you was born and you look up and there’s an old clock on the side of a building you never seen before, or there’s a little gargoyley face over a window or something.

Richard Rider, No Beginning, No End