New Orleans Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old new orleans quotes, new orleans sayings, and new orleans proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin. Mark Twain
Even the sidewalks in ‪‎New Orleans‬ had personality. Hunter Murphy
If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom. Chris Rose
I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans. Ernie K Doe
New Orleans is a unique environment. Steve Earle
How did you fall in love with New Orleans? At once, madly. Looking back, sometimes I think it was predestined. Andrei Codrescu
New Orleans is awake all night, and every night is a party. Kodi Smit-McPhee
America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland. Tennessee Williams
What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in New Orleans, goes home with you. Laurell K. Hamilton
People don't live in New Orleans because it is easy. They live here because they are incapable of living anywhere else in the just same way. Ian McNulty
People from New Orleans are extremely prideful. Solange Knowles
There is no other place on earth even remotely like New Orleans. Don't even try to compare it to anywhere else. Anthony Bourdain
I think New Orleans is the best city in the United States. Erin Heatherton
New Orleans is just a doggone fun place to be. Archie Manning
You knows dat in New Orleans is not morning 'til dee sun come up. Tom Robbins
Creole is New Orleans city food. Communities were created by the people who wanted to stay and not go back to Spain or France. Paul Prudhomme
There is a house in New Orleans. / They call the Rising Sun. / It’s been the ruin of many poor girls. / And me, O Lord, for one. American Folk Song
Go tell my baby sister, / Never do like I have done, / Tell her shun that house in New Orleans, / They call the Rising Sun. American Folk Song
Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans / At the end of the early British war / The young land started growing / The young blood started flowing / But I ain’t marchin’ anymore. Phil Ochs
We picked up one excellent word—a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive handy word—'Lagniappe.' They pronounce it lanny-yap. . . . It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a 'baker's dozen.' It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure. Mark Twain
In New Orleans, they don't have a bad deli. There's no mediocrity accepted. Mario Batali
New Orleans has enough characters in your immediate proximity to fill several books. And if you have the presence of mind—or the kind of mind—to remember things people tell you at parties, you’ll never run out of stuff. Andrei Codrescu
People—not just writers—are attracted to New Orleans because it’s full of stories and listeners who love nothing better than to listen to them. Andrei Codrescu
Everybody in New Orleans loves the food, the music, and our sense of time (slow time) that’s peculiar to us and to us only. There is a velvety sensuality here at the mouth of the Mississippi that you won’t find anywhere else. Tell me what the air feels like 3 a.m. on a Thursday night in late August in Shaker Heights and I bet that you won’t be able to say because nobody stays up that late. But in New Orleans, I tell you, it’s ink and honey passed through silver moonlight. Andrei Codrescu
When the rich, the famous, the bored, the strange and just plain fugitives fantasize about disappearing, they inevitably think of New Orleans. Andrei Codrescu
New Orleans is an essence, something that if bottled would be so pungent you’d think that a perfumed boil on the Devil’s forehead had burst open. Andrei Codrescu
It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mark Twain
If New Orleans is allowed to die, a crucial part of the world's music heritage will disappear. Ray Davies
If I had grown up in any place but New Orleans, I don t think my career would have taken off. I wouldn't have heard the music that was around this town. There was so much going on when I was a kid. Pete Fountain
To get to New Orleans, you don't pass through anywhere else. That geographical location, being aloof, lets it hold onto the ritual of its own pace more than other places that have to keep up with the progress. Allen Toussaint