There is nowhere like New Orleans–and based on how easy it is to compile a list of New Orleans quotes that say similar things in endless ways, it’s safe to say that that takeaway is a common one.
From the food to the music to the culture to NOLA’s festivals the many photogenic places in NOLA to the complex history of the city, New Orleans is a place like no other in the world.
Planning a trip to New Orleans? These New Orleans quotes will leave you impatient to pack your bags!
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“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” — Tennessee Williams
“How did you fall in love with New Orleans? At once, madly. Sometimes I think it was predestined.” — Andrei Codrescu
“In New Orleans, culture doesn’t come down from on high, it bubbles up from the streets.” — Ellis Marsalis
“I”m not sure, but I’m almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans.” — Ernie K. Doe
“There is no place on Earth even remotely like New Orleans. Don’t even try to compare it to anywhere else.” — Anthony Bourdain
“You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” — Jimmy Buffet
“Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.” — Louis Armstrong
“If I could put my finger on it, I’d bottle it and sell it. I came down here originally in 1972 with some drunken fraternity guys and had never seen anything like it — the climate, the smells. It’s the cradle of music; it just flipped me. Someone suggested that there’s an incomplete part of our chromosomes that gets repaired or found when we hit New Orleans. Some of us just belong here.” — John Goodman
“If you’re open to it, New Orleans will teach you about yourself, but if you want to hide from who you really are, the city will help you do that, too.” — Laurell K. Hamilton
“New Orleans is like a big musical gumbo. The sound I have is from being in the city my whole life.” — Trombone Shorty
“There are a lot of places I like, but I like New Orleans better.” — Bob Dylan
“Don’t you just love those long afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour–but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands–and who knows what to do with it?” — Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire)
“If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom.” — Chris Rose
“In New Orleans, we celebrate everything. It’s probably the only place you’ll see people dancing in a funeral home.” — Trombone Shorty
“New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.” — Mark Twain
“When a lot of people are calling it a night at 2 AM, New Orleans is coming alive.” — Mannie Fresh
“I’m not going to lay down in words the lure of this place. Every great writer in the land, from Faulkner to Twain to Rice to Ford, has tried to do it and fallen short. It is impossible to capture the essence, tolerance, and spirit of south Louisiana in words and to try is to roll down a road of clichés, bouncing over beignets and beads and brass bands and it just is what it is.” — Chris Rose
“Everything in New Orleans is a good idea.” — Bob Dylan
“I returned to New Orleans, and as soon as I smelled the air, I knew I was home. It was rich, almost sweet, like the scent of jasmine and roses around our old courtyard. I walked the streets, savoring that long-lost perfume.” — Anne Rice (Interview With a Vampire)
“I’ve been all over the world. I love New York, I love Paris, San Francisco, so many places. But there’s no place like New Orleans. It’s got the best food. It’s got the best music. It’s got the best people. It’s got the most fun stuff to do.” — Harry Connick Jr.
“An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.” — Mark Twain
“There’s a difference between the blues of the New Orleans guys and anyone else, but I can’t figure out the name of it. It’s a different chord, and they all make it.” — Jimmy Rushing
Need more New Orleans quotes in your life?
Read some fabulous books about New Orleans before your trip!
N.O.L.A. Stands for: No Other Land Affects me…..That’s New Orleans, La.
It is Home for me…
I am finally going back in September!
And having been away in California for the last 20 years, I CAN NOT WAIT TO GET HOME AGAIN!!
I left N. O. 52 years ago but it never left me. I cry when I think about what Katrina and Ida has done to it.
I been many places but nothing like the big easy i fell in love with it i tell anyone and everone experience it its the everything and i guarantee usill reurn the greatest food ever everything all i xan say is try it
Great quotes, I’m from NO and retired to Mississippi, but I miss the culture and music every day. My granddaughters after LSU all moved
To uptown NO and love every bit of shopping on Magazine St, eating at great restaurants and going to festivals. I’m hoping the city gets back, it needs the tourists to mingle and learn from us how to have simple fun (just walking) this makes the city great. God has blessed NO
And I hope it continues to be a great city.
New Orleans is the only place on earth where a parade can happen at a moments notice. Not a little walk down the street but a full blown parade. And then the fun begins. To know New Orleans is to love her and I always shall.