50 Los Angeles Quotes About The City Of Angels
Published June 3, 2023
Feel the west coast vibes with our Los Angeles quotes.
Los Angeles is a beautiful mixture of culture and people, and we have some of the coolest Los Angeles quotes celebrating this All-American City.
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What is Los Angeles famous for?
Los Angeles is well known for many reasons.
For starters, LA is the entertainment capital of the world.
Aside from the beautiful parks, landmarks, museums, theme parks, professional sports, wineries, breweries, nightlife, and outdoor activities, Los Angeles is the home to Hollywood.
Check out these astonishing facts about LA below:
- By 1930, LA produced 25% of the world’s oil.
- The iconic Hollywood sign initially said Hollywoodland.
- The film industry moved to LA to avoid Thomas Edison’s patents.
Why is Los Angeles considered an All-American City?
It is safe to say Los Angeles is a legendary city as it is one of the most famous cities in the world.
In 1996, rapper and actor Tupac Shakur immortalized Los Angeles in his hit song, To Live and Die, in LA.
In this hip-hop classic, Tupac paints a rich tapestry of a city forging an identity among millions of people with dozens of diverse cultures.
When people think of countries, they commonly think of their largest cities.
It is natural to hear England and think of London, just like if you hear Japan, you might think of Tokyo.
Of the ten largest cities in the world by area, Los Angeles is number six on the list.
So it is natural for people to think of Los Angeles when the United States is mentioned.
Some artists, such as musician and actor Ice T, feel, “Los Angeles is a microcosm of the United States. If L.A. falls, the country falls.”
Some writers like Jack Kerouac said, “L.A. is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities.”
It does not matter how you feel about Los Angeles because Los Angeles does not care.
Los Angeles has grown to become one of the most iconic cities in the United States, boasting over fifty million visitors per year who spend over eighteen billion annually touring LA.
People have always been enamored with the magic of Los Angeles.
It is a place where natural beauty and plastic waste integrate.
The city can take you to the highest mountain peaks of happiness or the lowest valleys of sadness.
American historian Norman M. Klein lamented that “Los Angeles remains the most photographed and least remembered city in the world.”
Check out our Los Angeles quotes below to learn more about the City of Angels.
Short Los Angeles quotes about the city of angels
These quotes describe the essence of LA in a few words.
1. “Los Angeles is a way of life.” ― Cara Dee
2. “Los Angeles, give me some of you!” — John Fante
3. “Los Angeles; a bright and guilty place.” —Orson Welles
4. “Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic.” – Norman Mailer
5. “The L.A. Cogito: I laugh, therefore I am.” – Peter Schjeldahl
6. “Los Angeles is many places in one place.” — P. J. O’Rourke
7. “Los Angeles is an endless sea of suburbs.” ― Oliver Markus Malloy
8. “Los Angeles is the Great Gatsby of American cities.” – Kevin Starr
9. “I love Los Angeles. It reinvents itself every two days.” — Billy Connolly
10. “You’re not done with L.A. until L.A. is done with you.” – Philip Elliott
More short Los Angeles quotes about a Great American City
LA is an influential city, and many people have much to say about it.
11. “Los Angeles the world’s biggest third-class city.” ― John D. MacDonald
12. “The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles.” ― Rick Riordan
13. “Los Angeles is seven suburbs in search of a city.” ― Alexander Woollcott
14. “In Los Angeles, when will you save me, Los Angeles.” – Blink-182, Los Angeles
15. “I see L.A. as a beautiful blonde with dirty underwear.” – David Boreanaz
16. “The city burning is Los Angeles’s deepest image of itself.” —Joan Didion
17. “I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan.” — Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA
18. “In Los Angeles, everything is 100% organic, except the people.” – Kris Kidd
20. “In Los Angeles, by the time you’re 35, you’re older than most of the buildings.” – Delia Ephron
The top poetic quotes about Los Angeles
Fans of the city will enjoy these poetic quotes.
21. “Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city” – Dorothy Parker
22. “Los Angeles makes the rest of California seem authentic” – Jonathan Culler
23. “This is Los Angeles. There’s always an alternate route.” ― David Kipen
24. “Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in, the city of angels.” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
25. “When I came to Los Angeles, it was the first time that I ever felt like I belonged somewhere.” — Jennifer Love Hewitt
26. “You can have a laugh in Los Angeles, or you can weep in Los Angeles, depending on your attitude towards it.” — Miranda Richardson
27. “Darling, in LA, you decide who you are. Every neighborhood has its own culture and population. Once you find the right one for you, you’re home.” — Cara Dee
28. “Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town. I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town!” — John Fante
29. “Los Angeles is a place where if you have the right person with you, there are all these little worlds that you would never guess by just looking at the exterior of what the city is.” — Greta Gerwig
30. “People cut themselves off from their ties of the old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking for a place where they can be free, where they can do things they couldn’t do anywhere else.” – Tom Bradley
Funny Los Angeles quotes to make you giggle
Come and laugh with these hilarious Los Angeles quotes
31. “Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” — Frank Lloyd Wright
32. “My god, Los Angeles was an ugly city. But my god, Los Angeles was still cool as hell.” ― David Yoon
33. “Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees.” – David Letterman
34. “In L.A., if you talk to four people, one is probably going to have more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.” – Gianluca Conte
35. “Los Angeles is a great place. Where else can you smell the air and see it coming at you at the same time? – Jackie Gayle
36. “In slow-paced Los Angeles, it is easy to get distracted by a good sunset or a flock of butterflies and forget to produce any work at all.” – Molly Lambert
37. “South Central Los Angeles is the home of the drive-thru and the drive-by. Funny thing is, the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.” – Ron Finley
38. “Having Miami in a state like Florida makes no sense. You may as well put Los Angeles in the middle of Arkansas. It’s not connected. It’s just bright and loud and big and there.” ― Caspar Vega
39. “In California, the only way to look like you are getting older is to look like you are getting younger. If you can move your forehead over the age of forty, then people become very suspicious.” ― Matt Haig
40. “I expected Los Angeles to be slick and modern, but overall it had a rundown look and feel to it. Sort of like Denver. Sort of like every city in America I’ve lived in, except San Francisco, which looks cool.” ― Gary Reilly
The best quotes about the difference between New York and Los Angeles
41. “Los Angeles is just New York lying down.” – Quentin Crisp
42. “LA is very different from New York. New York is a huge, dense metropolis.” ― Oliver Markus Malloy
43. “LA is a bunch of small towns all running into each other. New York is the city that never sleeps.” ― Oliver Markus Malloy
44. “If New York is the city that never sleeps, then Los Angeles is the city that’s always passed out on the couch.” ― Paul Beatty
45. “If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture, not only national culture but global culture.” – Barbara Kruger
46. “People don’t seem to have a problem with a romanticized New York. In fact, that’s almost all they ever do, in some sense, is romanticize that place. Los Angeles deserves the same courtesy.” ― Matthew Specktor
47. “There’s an old saying about life in the two cities: That you should live in New York but leave before you become hard, and live in California, but leave before you become soft.” ― Jake Dobkin
More Quotes Comparing New York and Los Angeles
Here are a few more quotes comparing the two popular cities.
48. “Of course, in Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes, on the way, the train is delayed, and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That’s why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car.” ― George Carlin
49. “When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles, it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York and only 72 in Los Angeles.” ― Neil Simon
50. “Cities are distinguished by the catastrophic forms they presuppose and which are a vital part of their essential charm. New York is King Kong, or the blackout, or vertical bombardment: Towering Inferno. Los Angeles is the horizontal fault, California breaking off and sliding into the Pacific: Earthquake.” – Jean Baudrillard
How did Los Angeles get its name?
We live in a multi-dimensional world and often get multi-sided origin stories.
When looking into the history of how the city of Los Angeles got its name, we run into different accounts.
LA historian Doyce B. Nunis Jr’s research suggests that the city’s original name was El Pueblo de la Reyna de los Angeles.
Los Angeles was founded in 1781.
Nunis has found historical documents dated as early as 1877 that show the above name.
At the same time, historical archivist Francis J. Weber argues the original name was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de Porniuncula.
The origin story is important; however, people have referred to the city as Los Angeles for several hundred years.
Today, LA is one of the world’s top destinations.
What do you love about Los Angeles?
Please be sure to let us know in the comments below.
