If New York is a wise guy, Paris a coquette, Rome a gigolo and Berlin a wicked uncle, then London is an old lady who mutters and has the second sight. She is slightly deaf, and doesn't suffer fools gladly.
A. A. Gill
London is a city of ghosts; you feel them here. Not just of people, but eras. The ghost of empire, or the blitz, the plague, the smoky ghost of the Great Fire that gave us Christopher Wren's churches and ushered in the Georgian city.
The French are never happy coming to London; this is an ancient and comforting enmity.
When Americans come to London they usually say how much they love the history, the tradition, the splendid tumpty-tum of things whose very repetition has become their point.
The one thing politicians will always vote for is more politics, so in 2000 they invented the post of mayor of London without ever really thinking what it was a mayor would do.
Only people who live outside cities realize the size of them. London turns out to be huge; there are great swaths, vast panoramas, a whole diaspora I'd never imagined. The place I live in tends to be manageably small, a few familiar journeys and destinations.
The London police have discovered that the best way to neuter demonstrations is not to move everyone on, or disperse troublemakers, but hold them close, cordon them into a diminishing space for hours and hours, as a sort of arbitrary al fresco arrest.
A lot of London's image never was. There never was a Dickensian London, or a Shakespearean London, or a swinging London.
One of the small joys that's easy to miss in London is the blue plaques on buildings. These are put up to commemorate the famous on the houses they lived in.
London does two things for me: it makes me feel connected, and it also makes me feel very isolated and quite lonely at times, and that's someone with two children in their family.
Abi Morgan
The thing I love about London is that it is filled with migrants, including myself.
All generations think the present moment is the greatest but also have this fascination with before their time. I do the same thing. I see old British movies. I'm like, 'Man, I would love to be in London at that time.' But then I wouldn't be able to watch 'The Walking Dead,' I wouldn't have cable, and my pizza options would be limited.
Ad-Rock
I think what's going on with gorillas is pretty bad. The fact is that you can buy gorilla meat in London any day you want it.
Adam Ant
My earliest memories of horror are 'Friday the 13th Part 2,' John Carpenter's 'The Thing,' 'Halloween,' 'An American Werewolf in London,' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'... and 'Hatchet' is so obviously inspired by those films that I may as well have made it in 1984.
Adam Green
I love all kinds of music. My dad's from London, so he loves David Bowie, the Stones, The Clash. I grew up with that influence while loving poetry and loving all kinds of current music.
Adam Hicks
London is a vast, complex city designed by the same guy who created the Habitrail.
Adam Schlesinger
I've had three or four Scottish Premier League clubs contact me about going there and doing something. A couple of those clubs couldn't be further away from London so I'd have to seriously think about it, but it's nice to be sought after and nice to be wanted.
Adebayo Akinfenwa
By the time I auditioned for 'Aliens in America,' the July 7 bombing had happened in London. So I'd had those experiences where I would get onto the Tube, and people would get off. So there was a lot about Raja that I understood.
Adhir Kalyan
My father was a diplomat and served as Pakistan's ambassador to 14 countries. I was born in London and grew up there and studied and lived in a hostel throughout in London and became a barrister.
Adnan Sami
I used to play rugby, polo, tennis, and cricket in school. It was only in the 1990s, when I used to live just opposite Harrods in London, that I started putting on weight. I used to have my breakfast there every day.
I did a law degree but was miserable the whole time. I was supposed to join a law firm in London but instead went to Oxford to do a master's in philosophy.
I always think, what I would have thought of something like Gurls Talk would have come into my school? Or how would I have felt if I'd heard there was this one-day festival happening in London? I think I'd have definitely gone, I started Gurls Talk because it was everything that I needed at school.
I never would have dreamt in a million years that I would have young girls coming up to me at Glastonbury or on the streets of L.A., New York, London, and telling me how much GurlsTalk or seeing my picture in a magazine means to them, as a woman of colour.
To make a career as an Irish actor, generally it's the case that you move to London. When you make that move, you do tend to stand out.
When I first walked in to London, I was so overwhelmed by the village, the sheer volume of people. I was just so excited. You don't know what to expect. So the level of excitement was almost draining, just taking everything in. I was so exhausted after I swam because of all the excitement in the build-up.
In London, you can visit, in a way, every part of the globe within the span of a few streets. It's truly amazing and, whatever your mood, you're sure to find something to your taste.
Although my family is originally from Jamaica, I grew up in a diverse community in south London. As my parents were immigrants they made every effort to integrate and we used to go to a wonderful church where we befriended families from all over the world.
Most of my world is in London, and I feel like this is where I went mad and ended up finding myself.
I trained in London as a classical actor, but you've no idea what way your career will go.
A city like London is sociable in a sense that there are people gathering in bars and restaurants, concerts and lectures. Yet you can partake of all these experiences and never say hello to anyone new. And one of the things that all religions do is take groups of strangers into a space and say it is OK to talk to each other.
If I had the choice to travel to two places in Europe, it would be Paris and London.
In each restaurant, I develop a different culinary sensibility. In Paris, I'm more classic, because that's what customers like. In Monaco, it's classic Mediterranean haute cuisine. In London, it's a contemporary French restaurant that I've developed with a U.K. influence and my French know-how.
In London, there is no need for 25 high-end gastronomic restaurants. That would be too much.
In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences.
London is the most important city in the world for restaurants.
When I arrived, I didn't understand London customers perfectly, but we've developed the right style with the right price, and step by step, I'm in harmony with London.
It's striking and unique in London how you know to create this alchemy between the concept, the food, the music, the staff. From the beginning to the end, with all these different elements, it tells a full story that you know very well how to develop and cultivate.
Believe me, I did not come to London to cook farmed fish. All my fish are wild.
My grandmother flew only once in her life, and that was the day she and her new husband ascended into the skies of Victorian London in the wicker basket of a hot-air balloon. They were soon to emigrate to Canada, and the aerial ride was meant to be a last view of their beloved England.
I don't drive around London much. Any journey around Islington involves hundreds of speed bumps that seem to tear the bottom of your car off.
The thing I'd really like to see is the old London Bridge, with all the old buildings around it like Shakespeare's Globe. I'd like to walk along that. Don't worry, I won't get drunk and fall in.
The one I remember is going into London, as it was for us in Essex, on New Year's Eve in 1981. There were four of us and we'd had a few lagers on the way. One of my mates threw up in the Tube and then stood up and fell over in it. We thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever seen.
London has been used as the emblematic English city, but it's far from representative of what life in England is actually about.
In 2008, Pistorius was the only guy who could run under 22 seconds at 200 m. So I said I would run as fast as that in London. I practised; I trained.
I'm always afraid someone's going to tap me on the shoulder one day and say, 'Back to North London.'
You know, London is so sprawling, and you can sometimes forget that anybody else is on a stage anywhere else.
I was a student in London in the '70s, so CBGB really wasn't on my radar at all. Obviously, I was aware of the emergence of the Police in England and as an art student, I was very aware of David Byrne, but I suppose my musical taste at that time certainly didn't stretch towards the Dead Boys or the Ramones.
I haven't seen the film yet because I just got in from London. In the scenes where the two characters are bantering with each other, it is like bobbing at the net in tennis.
I was in London. It's a long way to go for a very long party, sitting there for six hours not having a cigarette or a drink. It's a waste of time.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the people in London and in Egypt. We're very concerned about it. We are providing our expertise to aid in the investigation in London.