I think that I identify with Philadelphia for a lot of reasons. Without even thinking about it, I called myself ‘Philly’s Constant Hitmaker’ when I first got a MySpace, before I had any real hits. It was kind of just a funny slogan, basically lifted from the Rolling Stones’ first album, ‘England’s Newest Hit Makers.’
I was with Lanford Wilson in Philadelphia watching a play of his when the call came from Hollywood. ‘Norman Lear wants to do ‘Baltimore’ on television,’ Lanford said. ‘What do you think?’
I got elected as the mayor of Philadelphia and yes I am black. But my responsibility is to all the citizens of the city.
I’m a Buffalo wing magnet, a sandwich fanatic, a cheesesteak guy. But I’ll only get a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. No one else does it right.
I really disliked Philadelphia society – really, deeply disliked it. I spent a lot of my teenage years writing poetry attacking it.
I wanted to show the world, and myself too, what I can do. I came up in the world of Philadelphia soul, but I’m fluent in a lot of languages musically and I like working with different people from different generations.
Thank you to Josh Harris for the trust he has placed in me to lead the 76ers. I am humbled by the challenge and will work tirelessly to win the hearts of Philadelphia’s legendary fans.
As a child, I was tortured because my mother was a brilliant seamstress who made most of my clothes. I was despised by the children at school because I looked like I was going to an opening every day. We weren’t wealthy at all; we lived in a row house in Philadelphia.
I wasn’t going off to New York to be more famous than my father, but in retrospect, that certainly was driving me. He was famous in Philadelphia, but it was also really important to him to be famous. And to a certain extent, I got some of that, even though there were parts of it that horrified me.
When I decided to run for Congress, I saw it as an opportunity to serve the South Jersey community that had become my home after signing to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. I didn’t choose public service out of political ambition or a desire for power, and never once thought of making a career of it.
I grew up in Philadelphia in a time where we took it for granted that we were supposed to be young and gifted and black. It was a culture of excellence – and all my friends were more talented than I was.
Owning the Eagles is the ultimate fulfillment of every fantasy I ever had growing up in Philadelphia.
I’m a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia’s tap water.
If I’m a busboy in Philadelphia, then I have to be careful about what I say. But if I’m a public tycoon like Jerry Seinfeld, and I got a billion dollars in my pocket, he’s got to be nuts to wonder or worry about what people are going to think.
I love the dignity in the name Philadelphia, but at heart, we’re Philly.
Stretching back nearly three decades, Brian Williams and I have forged an enduring friendship. It all began in 1986 at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia and has resulted in a set of noteworthy experiences, amazing successes, and a bunch of trips to NASCAR speedways.
I’m looking to grab the UFC and pull them back in the direction of Philadelphia.
I think everybody from Philadelphia been shot at before.
Part of the problem when I was doing ‘How I Learned to Drive’ is I would see my kids one night a week for six months, and that was just too hard. We moved to Philadelphia after we lost our house in the earthquake, the ’94 Northridge earthquake.
I feel like the Philadelphia sports teams are really good at having my back.
Everyone wants to focus on what Ben Simmons can’t do, which is shoot and try to rush him into being a range shooter. I think Simmons in Philadelphia has done a good job in focusing what he does great versus what he doesn’t do as well.
I hear my voice and I cringe, I kind of hear Philadelphia in there, my hometown.
I grew up the No. 1 Michael Jordan fan on Earth. I was from the Philadelphia area and Jordan was king.
I’d go around Philadelphia and everybody still loved me. Until the Eagles won, I was the only champ they had.
When I came to Philadelphia in the late ’80s, it was going through a very difficult time.
I can play anywhere. First, third, left field, anywhere but Philadelphia.
From the moment I arrived in Philadelphia, the city has embraced me.
As one of the first African-Americans to be out on a reality program, MTV’s ‘The Real World: Philadelphia,’ I understand the courage it takes to live your truth on a national platform, the importance it holds to LGBT communities of color, and the power it has to create a greater conversation within American culture.
The part in ‘Philadelphia’ where I represent the law firm that’s firing Tom Hanks, that was a hard part for me because I lost one of my best friends to AIDS, and it was hard for me to play a part that wasn’t sympathetic to someone with AIDS.
I grew up in Los Angeles, and I’ve made movies all over the world… I’ve been in New York, Norway, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, London – I’ve been in all these cities, shooting away in the winter, thinking, ‘People who choose to live here are insane.’
Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, I saw many operas in New York and Philadelphia. When people found out about that, they were always shocked, because I was a professional wrestler. Why are athletes any different than any other profession? People have many other interests.
I didn’t leave home until 27. I was an only child raised in Philadelphia by my mother and grandmother. My grandmother controlled the stove. She made a lot of potato meals – mashed potato, potato souffle, potato pancakes. When we didn’t have electricity, we ate romantically by candlelight.
‘The Philadelphia Story’ is one of my favorite movies.
But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you’ve got to compromise. You’ve got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.
I love Philadelphia.
My local radio station, WHOC, Philadelphia, Mississippi – ‘1490 on your radio dial, a thousand watts of pure pleasure’ – it was a beautiful station. And I loved everything I heard. But it was country music that touched my heart.
It was a great experience for me – the ups and downs – because I became a man in Philadelphia.
I’m a health nut, but when I eat, I go hard. I’m a Buffalo wing magnet, a sandwich fanatic, a cheesesteak guy. But I’ll only get a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. No one else does it right.
I remember the first time I went out on the street to shoot pictures. I was in downtown Philadelphia, and I just took a walk and started making contact with people and photographing them, and I thought, ‘I love this. This is what I want to do forever.’ There was never another question.
I made a lot of good friends in Philadelphia and the last thing that I would want to do is dog anyone in that clubhouse. If I made it sound like that, it was a mistake.
You can’t be Allen Iverson on a football team. And even Iverson got run out of Philadelphia when he was still a spectacular talent because the Sixers got tired of the headache and his bad attitude.
We should do ‘Takeaway’ from Chicago or Philadelphia. We’d have great fun with it.
When I wrote ‘Silver Linings,’ I thought I was writing a book about the Philadelphia Eagles and male bonding, but when the book came out, it was surprising to me that the mental health community embraced it.
If you grow up in the South Bronx today or in south-central Los Angeles or Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, you quickly come to understand that you have been set apart and that there’s no will in this society to bring you back into the mainstream.
Nobody aspires to be a backup. And although I take great pride in the supporting roles I’ve played in both Philadelphia and Kansas City, part of me still cringes every time I hear myself described that way. Not only is it limiting and one-dimensional, it doesn’t come close to describing who I really am.
In the year 1857, passing through Washington on our return from the annual visit to Philadelphia, I had the distinguished honor of visiting a President for the first time.
I’d love to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m a South Jersey kid, and I was very excited when the Phillies won the World Series, and I’d like to stay home.
I started training when I was a senior in high school. I trained at the Combat Zone Wrestling Academy in South Philadelphia.
Industrial technologies that allowed for increased mechanization in 19th-century armed forces also spurred Frederick Winslow Taylor to develop his ‘Scientific Management’ doctrine in Philadelphia steel mills.
I have the Puerto Rico power and the Philadelphia toughness and Philadelphia skills.
I did ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?’ at the same time. It’s kind of wonderful to do it that way, because you get very hyper-focused.
I’ve done a couple of films in Philadelphia, and it’s a great, great town.
Look at the greatest dressers in history – Philadelphia socialite and diplomat Angier Biddle Duke, Sir Anthony Eden, Fred Astaire, the Duke of Windsor, John F. Kennedy, and Gary Cooper – they all sport the well placed pocket adornment.
In the early ’70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.
