I have a folder on my phone full of LA photos I never posted because I couldn’t figure out what to say about them.
There’s the Hollywood sign shot everyone takes. A sunset from Malibu that looked better in person. That one street in Silver Lake with the perfect light. Every time I’d start typing a caption, it either sounded like a tourism board wrote it or like I was trying way too hard to be deep about palm trees.
Turns out I’m not the only one who freezes up around LA. The city is so…much. So I started saving quotes and captions that didn’t make me cringe, things that actually captured what it feels like to be there without appearing ridiculous.
If you’ve got LA photos sitting in drafts because you can’t find the right words, here’s what helped me.
Best Los Angeles Quotes
While I’m in L.A. I always make time for my favorite activity, which is hiking. The trails in California are amazing, as they are always challenging, and I never get bored from all the beautiful scenery. ~ Dylan Lauren
In Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles, you learn their star sign. In Houston, you’re told how rich they are. And in New York, they tell you what their rent is. ~ Simon Hoggart
Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city. ~ Dorothy Parker
So I live in Los Angeles, and it’s kind of a goofy place. They have an airport named after John Wayne. That ought to explain it. It has a charming kind of superstitious innocence. ~ George Carlin
In Los Angeles, people dress with the deep and earnest hope that people will do nothing but stare at them. ~ Ellie Kemper
The thing that really surprised me about strip malls in California, specifically Los Angeles, is that they have some really fantastic restaurants. ~ Dave Folley
Los Angeles was the kind of place where everybody was from somewhere else, and nobody really dropped anchor. It was a transient place. People are drawn by the dream, people running from the nightmare. Twelve million people, and all of them ready to make a break for it if necessary. Figuratively, literally, metaphorically — any way you want to look at it — everybody in L.A. keeps a bag packed. Just in case. ~ Michael Connelly
Tip the world over on its side, and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright
One good thing about New York is that most people function daily while in a low-grade depression. It’s not like if you’re in Los Angeles, where everyone’s so actively working on cheerfulness and mental and physical health that if they sense you’re down, they shun you. Also, all that sunshine is a cruel joke when you’re depressed. In New York, even in your misery, you feel like you belong. ~ Mindy Kaling
Los Angeles is a microcosm of the United States. If L.A. falls, the country falls. ~ Ice T
People cut themselves off from the ties of their old life when they come to Los Angeles. They are looking for a place where they can be free, where they can do things they couldn’t do anywhere else. ~ Tom Bradley
If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture – not only national culture but global culture. ~ Barbara Kruger
In slow-paced Los Angeles, it’s easy to get distracted by a good sunset or a flock of butterflies and forget to produce any work at all. ~ Molly Lambert
I could hear everything, together with the hum of my hotel neon. I never felt sadder in my life. LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets godawful cold in the winter, but there’s a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle. ~ Jack Kerouac
I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic. ~ Andy Warhol
From Hollywood & Vine to the Sunset Strip, there’s so much going on you can lose your grip. ~ B.B. King
The ideas you have about cities that you’ve always known don’t work in L.A., and once you toss those aside, you’ll be much better off. ~ Eve Babitz
When it’s 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York and only 72 in Los Angeles. ~ Neil Simon
You can’t find any true closeness in Hollywood because everybody does the fake closeness so well. ~ Carrie Fisher
In Los Angeles, by the time you’re 35, you’re older than most of the buildings. ~ Delia Ephron
Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang’s feeble imagination. ~ Henry Miller
On thinking about Hell, I gather my brother Shelley found it was a place much like the city of London. I, who live in Los Angeles and not in London, find, on thinking about Hell, that it must be still more like Los Angeles. ~ Bertolt Brecht
Humble old me had to flex for the folks, down in Muscle Beach, pumping iron and bone. ~ Frank Ocean
Los Angeles…I mean, who would want to live in a place where the only cultural advantage is that you can turn right on a red light? ~ Woody Allen
Los Angeles is a large city-like area surrounding the Beverly Hills Hotel. ~ Fran Lebowitz
Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse. ~ Joan Didion
I do love America. And LA is a very short commute to America, it’s like half an hour on the plane. ~ Craig Ferguson
Los Angeles has no seasons, so it’s kind of hard to keep track of time here. The lines between spring, summer, fall, and winter all blur like my vision. I get stuck on repeat for different measures of eternity. ~ Kris Kudd
L.A. can be a place of torment because the rewards are so huge, but the difficulties of getting your hands on those rewards are so great. ~ Geoff Dyer
People don’t live in Los Angeles because we are tied to the same old, same old. We live in Los Angeles because of the intoxicating energy of the new beginnings that permeate our city. ~ Marianne Williamson
Because Los Angeles was designed for cars, everything you want to do and everything you care about is too far away to get to on foot, so you never walk to anything. ~ Amy Wilentz
Pick your enemies carefully, or you’ll never make it in Los Angeles. ~ Rona Barrett
In Los Angeles, your eye keeps reaching for an endpoint and never finds it, because it doesn’t exist. ~ Susan Orlean.
Los Angeles Instagram Captions
I love Los Angeles. It reinvents itself every two days. ~ Billy Connolly
Call me an angel, cause I’m in a city full of them.
Los Angeles makes the rest of California seem authentic. ~ Jonathan Culler
If I can‘t go to Heaven, L.A. is the next best thing.
My favorite color is sunset.
Just here to get my star.
The final story, the final chapter of Western man, I believe, lies in Los Angeles. ~ Phil Ochs
Climb up the H of the Hollywood Sign, in these stolen moments, the world is mine. ~ Lana Del Rey
Always take fountain. ~ Bette Davis
A boulevard called Sunset.
Los Angeles is the Great Gatsby of American cities. ~ Kevin Starr
Pretty soon, you’ll find my name on one of these stars.
West coast, best coast.
Fall is my favorite season in Los Angeles, watching the birds change color and fall from the trees. ~ David Letterman
In Los Angeles, everyone is a star. ~ Denzel Washington
Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic. ~ Norman Mailer
So glad to meet you, Angeles. ~ Elliott Smith, Angeles
In Los Angeles, everything is 100% organic, except the people. ~ Kris Kidd
Feeling so starstruck everywhere I go.
Hollywood isn’t a place. It’s a way of life.
Hey L.A., it’s really, really nice to meet ya. ~ Ryan Beatty, Hey L.A.
Relationship status: In love with sunsets and this city called L.A.
In Los Angeles, you can have the city life and feel like you’re on holiday at the same time. ~ Isabel Marant
Los Angeles is like a beauty parlor at the end of the universe. ~ Emily Mortimer
This is the place where dreams come true.
Wonder who I’ll bump into here!
Rollin’ like a celebrity. ~ Weezer, Beverly Hills
I can still hear the waves from the West Coast.
In L.A., if you talk to four people, one is probably going to have more than 100,000 followers on Instagram. ~ Gianluca Conte
The L.A. Cogito: I laugh, therefore I am. ~ Peter Schjeldahl
Don’t miss out on this Los Angeles bliss.
We were made in LA.
Just here for an In-n-Out burger.
City of stars, are you shining just for me? ~ La La Land, City of Stars
Never go too long without watching a sunset. ~ Atticus
More Pacific Ocean, please.
Los Angeles, I’m yours.
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