LAS VEGAS QUOTES II
quotations about Las Vegas, Nevada
In the fledgling days of the town, the notorious Block 16 was set aside for card games and prostitution. Sin and commerce have marched hand-in-hand ever since, but this alliance made Las Vegas no more atypical than any other American city of the time. The difference is that Las Vegas extolled with pride what other places sought to hide. To the commonplace culture of heavily populated cities and industrial towns that made up the urban fabric of the country, Las Vegas alone stood as the behavioral "Other," a land where the "victimless" crimes of sex, drink, and gambling were not only condoned, but celebrated.
MARK GOTTDIENER
Las Vegas
To most people, Las Vegas is synonymous with gambling and glitter; a slightly, pleasingly sinful fairyland for adults where they can watch the most entertaining performers and biggest names in show business in between bouts of indulging in games of chance that everyone knows favor the house.
CLIFFORD L. LINEDECKER
Blood in the Sand
The city's frightening now. That's the basis of my reaction to Las Vegas. It's not the city I wrote about. It's not the same place at all. You'll notice that even the -- what do you call them? -- milestone or trademark casinos are now gone.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Las Vegas City Life, Jun. 7, 2002
The reason you should go to Las Vegas is because, for only the second time, the second time, ever, they have rebuilt Sodom and Gomorrah. It's back!! And you have the opportunity to see it before it turns to salt.
LEWIS BLACK
The White Album
Any other town you go to there's this little devil and a little angel on your shoulder. A little good advice, a little bad advice. You go to Las Vegas, there's like a devil and a devil and they're just battling it out the whole time. It's like, "Smoke some crack!" "Get a hooker!" And then I go, "YEA! Yea, this is a good town. Smoke some crack and get a hooker! Alright!"
BILLY BURR
stand-up routine
Vegas is the most extreme and allegorical of American settlements, bizarre and beautiful in its venality and in its devotion to immediate gratification.
JOAN DIDION
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Las Vegas is perhaps the most color-blind, class-free place in America. As long as your cash or credit line holds out, no one gives a damn about your race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, address, family lineage, voter registration or even your criminal arrest record. Money is the great leveler.
MARC COOPER
The Last Honest Place in America
I got a ton of memories in Las Vegas I can't talk about!
DARIUS RUCKER
"Darius Rucker: 'I'm just staying true to myself and making music that I like'", Las Vegas Sun, April 2, 2016
Las Vegas is a city of kickbacks. A desert city of greased palms. A place where a $20 bill can buy approval, a $100 bill adulation and $1,000 canonization.
NICHOLAS PILEGGI
Casino
Vegas must be a great town for Laundromats. Nobody lives there, everybody is just passing through, leaving a little bit of dirt.
JOHN UPDIKE
Rabbit at Rest
Las Vegas is a feast or famine kind of city.
KEVIN RAIFORD
"How we stack up: Financial experts weigh in on Las Vegas' recovery", Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 27, 2016
Of all the major destination towns in the U.S., Las Vegas might be the most perfectly, unashamedly transparent. No other city in North America, after all -- and perhaps no other city in the world -- has for so long been so identified with one pursuit: namely, the heart-pounding, more-often-than-not-futile hunt for the improbable, near-mythic Big Score.
BEN COSGROVE
"Vintage Vegas: Scenes From a Desert Boomtown", Time, May 8, 2014
The best thing about Las Vegas is that no one pretends to be responsible for your behavior like they do in the rest of the country. There's no meddling self-righteous liberals or right-wing Christian demagogues telling you that you can't do something fun with your own time and money. If you can afford it, it's yours.
DREW CAREY
Dirty Jokes and Beer
I hate to break this to you, but Las Vegas is like an actual city. They have grocery stores, big-box retailers, schools and everything. I mean, there is even a stoplight or two! It's crazy.
ADAM RANK
"Why you should root for the Oakland Raiders", NFL, July 20, 2017
There's a funny flip side to Las Vegas's purported libertarianism, a kind of corporate nanny state. (You think gambling is legal in Nevada? Try organizing a church raffle.)
KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON
"At Home in Vegas", National Review, October 3, 2017
[Las Vegas] turns women into men, and men into asses.
ALAN KING
attributed, Neon Metropolis
What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.
ANONYMOUS
marketing slogan adopted by the Las Vegas Conventions and Visitors Authority
Vegas embodies every brash, joyous cliché about the U.S. that the rest of the world hopes might be true.
MARK ELLWOOD
"Why It's Okay to Love Las Vegas", Condé Nast Traveler, March 15, 2016
Las Vegas is a society of armed masturbators/gambling is the kicker here/sex is extra/weird trip for high rollers ... house-whores for winners, hand jobs for the bad luck crowd.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Vegas is purposefully constructed as a self-enclosed and isolated biosphere, sort of what a recreational colony built on the moon might be like.
MARC COOPER
The Last Honest Place in America