Abdullahi Gelle

“It was just what you did automatically, go to lunch with friends. And it was so different than now. People were at the top of their form. Those restaurants were so beautiful and people felt they had to live up to the elegance of the setting. You wore your latest Givenchy or Balenciaga. And you felt that there were delicious conversations taking place at every table. Now you go into a place and everything looks transactional.”
Socialite Deeda Blair to Bob Colacello, “Here's to the Ladies Who Lunched!,” February 2012”
― Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age

“When [the ocean-liner Costa Concordia] began to roll, 'I couldn't understand what was going on, the movement was so violent,' says [Mario] Pellegrini, [deputy mayor of Giglio]. 'That's when the panic hit, and the electricity went out as well. Lights winking out all over. And when the ship stopped moving, we were in the dark, just the moon, the light of the full moon. And everyone was screaming.'”
Bryan Burrough, "Another Night to Remember," May 2012”
― Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age

“For whatever reason, Tony Soprano was very available and recognizable to a great number of people who had never gone near a mobster, who'd never eaten a meatball sandwich. They related to that guy; they saw who he was.”
The Sopranos creator David Chase to Sam Kashner and Jim Kelly, “The Family Hour: An Oral History of [the HBO series] The Sopranos,” April 2012”
― Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age

“Since 1992, as the technological miracles and wonders have propagated and the political economy has transformed, the world has become radically and profoundly new. Here is what's odd: during these same 20 years, the appearance of the world (computers, TVs, telephones, and music players aside) has changed hardly at all, less than it did during any 20-year period for at least a century. The past is a foreign country, but the recent past—the 00s, the 90s, even a lot of the 80s—looks almost identical to the present. This is the First Great Paradox of Contemporary Cultural History.”
Kurt Andersen, “You Say You Want a Devolution?,” January 2012”
― Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age