Philly Quotes

In 2001, I moved from Philly to Atlanta, where I lived for six years. I had never lived anywhere but Philly, and you can imagine the culture shock; the Civil War seeps into daily life and conversation down South in a way it never does up North.

I grew up in West Philly, and I took an acting class at Temple University there. Then, after school, I moved to San Francisco.

What’s the difference in opening from scratch in Philly or opening from scratch in New York? The old out-of-town tryout circuit – taking the show pre-Broadway to cities like Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Washington – has sort of been replaced with the amount of workshops we do.

Honestly, I’ve always loved cheesesteaks. They’re kind of my go-to when there’s nothing else to have at restaurants, but obviously it’s a little different when you’re out in Philly and have an authentic Philly cheesesteak.

I’m 61 now, and I’m comfortable in my lifestyle… I don’t yearn for the limelight on a regular basis. I get a kick out of it every so often. I go to Philly and go to a game, and they make a big deal about me. That’s fun for a couple of days, and I can go back to my own private life.

No offense to Boston, but I was glad to get out of there. I think it’s just because I’m from Philly. Honestly, the blue collar side of each are pretty similar in ways, but something about the makeup of your brain, Philly versus Boston. It’s a lot different, in weird ways.

I feel like a lot of performers‘ worst shows happened in Philly. There’s something about that town.

Wrestling fans are usually pretty passionate, but Philly is one of the cities that takes that to a different level.

I used to live in Philly, so I was in Baltimore a lot wrestling before I got to WWE, wrestling for different promotions.

I’m from Philadelphia, and I go to Philly a bunch throughout the holidays, which is my only time to see my family, so we get pretty festive around that time of year. It’s also the only time I have vacation.

For me, Philadelphia was always kind of that city you traveled to as an independent wrestler. I traveled there once or twice a month, doing that seven-to-eight-hour drive from Cleveland to Philly just to try and make a name for myself.

I do really love New York. I feel like there are more Asian restaurants. Philly has a sick food scene, I don’t want to diss it at all. But New York is so much bigger and there are more options.

When I was younger, growing up in Pittsburgh, they had a ‘Golden Gloves‘ program through the Boys and Girls Club. In Pittsburgh, New York, Philly, Washington, those areas, I would go and spar at competitions.

I never really thought of my neighborhood in South Philly as being a neighborhood; it was more a state of mind. For people who aren’t familiar with those kinds of places, it’s a whole different thing. Like, 42nd Street in New York City is a state of mind.

I grew up – obviously I’m from Philly, where Kobe is from, so we grew up idolizing Kobe. He meant everything to us.

I didn’t get a lot of awards as a player. But they did have a Bob Uecker Day Off for me once in Philly.

If you from Philly, you ain’t a Villanova guy. Villanova is the suburbs. That’s all you know about Villanova.

I don’t like Philly. I don’t care at all about Philly.

I have nothing but love for the Philly fans, even the ones who were highly criticizing me or opinionated in any way.

Philly will always have a special place in my heart, and I will cherish the great memories with the city and my teammates there.

I have some really cool memories here in Philly, and I thank you for the support. These are great fans, and I think when you play hard and when you do your best to win, they appreciate that. It was fun to be part of this organization and play for this city. I really enjoyed the time I was here.

I like New York. I like Philly. I like San Fran. I like when people are stoked. But Chicago‘s a real music town, and they’re really good to us there. There’s just something in the air there; people are just really stoked about music. Every time I go there, I have a great time, and the fandom is really heartwarming.

I’ve done a lot of plays before where I had to do a New York accent, but never a Philly one before. They do the rhotic ‘r’ – where you say the ‘r’ – where most New Yorkers don’t.

I love a good Roy Rogers or Shirley Temple, and I had to give those up. And Philly cheesesteaks. I love Philly cheesesteaks, and now they really aren’t around anymore.

I learned Neil Young songs, Bob Dylan songs and older songs. It wasn’t until I moved to Philly that I had aspirations to maybe forming a band.

Philly is a city made up of many neighborhoods – more than a hundred, in fact – and the citizens can be very territorial.

No matter what set she‘s been on over the last 12 years, my mother always finds a way to get in the way. Not in a bad way. Like, she once got caught on a law show I did called ‘Philly’ trying to take a picture – she was caught on-camera in the background. She does things like this.

I love the dignity in the name Philadelphia, but at heart, we’re Philly.

I think about growing up back in Philly. It was about friendship with the guys and having a distant crush on some gal. And when you finally got the nerve to take her out on a date, you went to her parents‘ house with a shine on your shoes, took her to the movies, and got her home nice and early.

I’ve been to a lot of different cities around the world. People in Philly are a lot different… We’re raised a little more street-smart. We’re raised a little tougher. We’re raised to never back down and to hold our ground.

But I love Chicago summers on Lake Michigan, Philly cheesesteaks on South Street, falling in love in Brooklyn, street fairs in Asheville, North Carolina.

I made the mistake of going to a barber who was not from Philly, and let’s just say, I would never do that again.

There’s a lot of haters in Philly, but it’s a lot of people that give you support – but way more haters. It’s definitely a great city to be from. But it’s not really a lot of people that come out of there. So when you, like, make it out of Philadelphia, everywhere else is easy.

The reason I became a better player was because I came to Philly.

In Philly, I had to be a scorer for us to have a chance to win.

Philly has that tradition of great basketball.

Philly gives me that raw edge. We just do us.

Philly’s busy enough. There are tons of record stores and record-head friends and plenty of D.I.Y. shows. It’s a place where people pass through and bands don’t usually skip on tour. There are lots of music resources, but it’s not too over the top.

Philly has always been one of our favorite towns to play in, and the fans have been very loyal and very supportive over the years.

For me, I listened to a lot of female jazz artists. And of course, the Motown and Philly sounds, all that stuff was very influential. And church and gospel.

I want to be in Philly for the rest of my life.

I was always running off to the city, whether it was Philly or New York, going somewhere where there was something more for me.

Philly will be the place for me for my whole career.

My biggest moments have been in Philly – I met Jay-Z and Beyonce in Philly, I did the Powerhouse in Philly.

Philadelphia is kind of like a Mecca for professional wrestling, especially the old ECW Arena down in South Philly. That’s the place I always wanted to wrestle growing up, and I got that opportunity when I worked with Ring of Honor.

Philly is more East Coast than Pittsburgh. It’s closer to New Jersey and New York, so the vibe is way more fast-paced.

I get my swag from Philly. I get my hustle from Philly. I get my work ethic from Philly.

Philly gave me my ambition and drive to get more. It’s a reminder to stay on top of my game. That’s not a place I want to go back to.

Creed 2′ was amazing and it felt very familiar, that boxing environment, being on the streets in Philly and everything, that was nice.

Summertime where guys played pickup, we got a thing in Philly called Summertime Rec. In that summertime you can’t duck no smoke. You can’t duck nobody in that basketball vibes.

John Kerry couldn’t even order a Philly cheesesteak properly.

Philly is a place where people love change as long as things stay the same for them.

You can be in this league for 10-15 years and not win a championship. My boy, Nelson Agholor, been in the league for three years and got a ring with Philly. That’s what we live for and dream for. That’s why I think a lot of guys stay in Pittsburgh: because we always compete for championships.

It seems like there’s a real world for new ideas in Philly.

Philly is old-school.

But my parents picked Ft. Wayne, which was the best decision because if they had brought me to New York or Philly, I would have swam back to Trinidad!

Anybody that’s from somewhere that’s made it in music outside of New York or L.A., if it’s a unique enough place, they’ll always say, ‘Dude‘s from Minnesota!’ Or wherever, you know? So that’s how I got the Philly connection.

I’m an Atlanta guy. I think Philly knows that. But I’ve adopted Philly as my second home, and they’ve embraced me.

There was never any animosity from the Philly fans.

People know I’m Philly straight up and down.

Philly, I feel like, is where I became a man and matured my game and became better. I went through the good and the bad with my teammates and it taught me a lot. With the fans and all, it was a great experience.

Who would’ve thought that this little girl in the ghetto in Philly would be playing the first black lesbian superhero on network TV?

I still think of myself as a Philadelphian. I still root for the Philadelphia teams. Other than my house, I still feel most at home in terms of cities when I’m in Philly.

When I left the penitentiary, I learned to stay away from the Philly cheesesteaks, the pizza, the junk that clogs your arteries and kills you.

There’s no secret about it: Every team does things differently. Seattle runs their program one way. New England runs it another way. Philly runs it another way.

Philly ain’t a good environment for you when you headed in a different direction. Bad things happen left and right. You might walk up the street, make a wrong turn, and your whole life could flip.

A.I. didn’t ask me to do a bunch of stuff for him. He just wanted me around. Usually we were at the Friday‘s in Philly, which he should have bought, because he was there so much.

In a lot of places Jay-Z is considered God, Philly, our hometown being one of them.

I felt like people who had a lost mindset or who occasionally did stupid things were having a ‘donkey‘ moment, or some of them are permanent donkeys, so I just started calling them donkeys. So when I went to Philly to do my own morning show, that’s when I first started doing ‘Donkey of the Day.’

I really value my days down there in ECW in Philly.

I like a lot of ratchet, trap music. Definitely 21 Savage. We need some music like that. ManMan Savage. A lot of the Atlanta scene. But Philly, too.

That’s what Flyers fans are all about. My favorite thing about Philly fans is booing their own team.

To research my book ‘Me the People’ – in which I have rewritten the entire Constitution of the United States – I flew to Greece, the birthplace of democracy. I bused to Philly, the home of independence. I even, if you can believe it, read the Constitution of the United States.

When I was in college in Philly, there was a lot of post-punks… hardcore… like, rock. Sixties, retro, proto-Strokes kind of bands.

Passyunk Productions is our film & tv production company. The name comes from a street in Philly, Passyunk Avenue, where the concept of The Roots was born, as Ahmir and I started out busking on the corner of 5th & Passyunk back in the early ’90s.

I got love for my Philly people. Those fans are about as crazy as you’ll find anywhere.

I always support Philly.