25 Famous (and Infamous) Quotes About Pittsburgh

We found 25 of the most notable quotations — attributed to everyone from authors to musicians to one cartoon cat — that sum up people’s thoughts on our city.
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ILLUSTRATION BY HUCK BEARD

Pittsburgh has been called the Steel City, the Smoky City and the Most Livable City. It’s been called Iron City, Sixburgh and the Paris of Appalachia.

Throughout its history, Pittsburgh has inspired a number of nicknames — and even more opinions. They range from the vulgar (we’re looking at you, Sienna Miller) to the poetic (Willie Stargell said coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnels was the “most grandest exhibition of how a city can open its arms to any one individual”) to the famous (“hell with the lid taken off”).

Many of these words that have been said about Pittsburgh inspire a sense of pride, some are just amusing and some expose the hard truth. But all have been used at one time in our history, whether in truth or in fiction, to describe the place we call home.

Here are 25 of the most notable quotes about Pittsburgh.


Carnegie Andrew

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK

“Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy and cannot be torn out.” – Industrialist Andrew Carnegie


“The town lies low, as at the bottom of an excavation, just visible through the mingled smoke and mist, and every object in it is black. Smoke, smoke, smoke — everywhere smoke.” … It was like “looking over into hell with the lid taken off.” – James Parton, writing for The Atlantic Monthly in 1868


Cather

“Pittsburgh was even more vital, more creative, more hungry for culture than New York. Pittsburgh was the birthplace of my writing.” – Author Willa Cather


“It would be cheaper to abandon [the city of Pittsburgh] and build a real one. This is a disappearing city: nothing comes out of it. The ancients would have swooned at the mere mention of the money it cost to build this jumble of buildings.” – Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 1935


“Pittsburgh is the cockeyedest city in the United States. Physically it is absolutely irrational. It must have been laid out by a mountain goat.” – Journalist Ernie Pyle, 1937


In the 1958 film “Auntie Mame,” nephew Patrick asks his society-dame aunt about her English lady friend, to which Mame replies, “She’s not English, darling; she’s from Pittsburgh”

“She sounded English,” Patrick says.

“Well, when you’re from Pittsburgh,” Mame replies, “you have to do something.”


“All I do is cough and choke From the iron filings and the sulphur smoke In Pittsburgh, Lord God, Pittsburgh” – “Pittsburgh Town” written by Woody Guthrie in 1941, sung by Pete Seeger


Clemente

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CLEMENTE MUSEUM

“In a way, I was born twice. I was born in 1934 and again in 1955 when I came to Pittsburgh. I am thankful to say that I lived two lives.” – Baseball great Roberto Clemente


Calvin: “I wonder where we go when we die.”

Hobbes: “Pittsburgh?”

Calvin: “You mean if we’re good or if we’re bad?”

– Calvin and Hobbes comic by Bill Watterson, 1985


“For all the insularity of the old guard, Pittsburgh was always an open and democratic town.” – Author Annie Dillard in her 1987 book “An American Childhood”


“My greatest honor was the moment that I arrived in Pittsburgh and put in what I thought was the most grandest exhibition of how a city can open its arms to any one individual. I came in through the Fort Pitt Tunnels, and it was the most beautiful thing that I’d ever observed … [Pittsburgh] wasn’t a fancy place because the people are real.” – Willie Stargell when inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988


“Like most people, I have this sort of love-hate relationship with Pittsburgh. This is my home and at times I miss it and find it tremendously exciting, and other times I want to catch the first thing out that has wheels.” – Playwright August Wilson in a 1994 interview


“I thought I smelled an early hint of the mysterious bittersweet gas that fills Pittsburgh in the summertime, a smell at once industrial and aboriginal, river water and sulfur dioxide, burning tires and the coat of a fox.” – Author Michael Chabon in his 1995 book “Wonder Boys”


“All the networks dumped us. One of them said we made going to the moon about as exciting as taking a trip to Pittsburgh.” – Henry Hurt (Xander Berkeley) in the 1995 film “Apollo 13”


“Sh*tsburgh.” – Actress Sienna Miller, while filming “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” in 2006


“I docked at Ellis Island in the city of light and spires / I wandered to the valley of red-hot steel and fire / We made the steel that built the cities with the sweat of our two hands / And we made our home in the American Land.” – Bruce Springsteen,
“American Land” (2006)


“I just feel like when I’m in Pittsburgh, every little square inch of it and every person that I meet just matters to me.” – Actor David Conrad in the 2008 documentary: “My Tale of Two Cities”


“I would like to just take a moment to say how much I absolutely love that town, not just because you don’t hear that very often. I truly love it, and I think our movie is many things and I think one of the things it is is kind of a love letter to Pittsburgh, because it looks beautiful in our movie, because it is an actual beautiful city.” – Actor Jay Baruchel during an interview about the Pittsburgh-set and filmed 2010 movie, “She’s Out of My League”


“Pittsburgh, let me show the world just where my city at / On the map, illest city out, I guess that’s just a fact.” – Mac Miller, “Smile Back” (2011)


“I always try to incorporate Pittsburgh and where I’m from and know what I’ve learned just about the grind and hustle from being there. I incorporate that in my music and really put it out there … I never get tired of my hometown vibe. I love my city.” – Wiz Khalifa in a 2012 interview


“In Pittsburgh, you are tough or you are not. You write or you don’t write. You start hearts or allow hearts to wind down like old clocks. I almost never think about what Pittsburgh means because I know it.” – Author Dave Newman in his 2012 book, “Raymond Carver Will Not Raise Our Children”


“I think it’s probably one of the friendliest cities I have ever spent time in in America. I really enjoy being here. Maybe it’s just because I’m an outsider, and I see things a little clearer, but nobody ever talks about the beauty of the architecture in Pittsburgh … It’s just gorgeous.” — Actor Russell Crowe speaking to Sally Wiggin while in town to film the 2015 movie “Fathers and Daughters”


“… Pittsburgh, for my money, is one of the best-looking cities in the country and we love to just walk around. We love rivers and bridges, so Pittsburgh is like our Disneyland. … And the charming location of Pittsburgh on the three rivers just seems like something out of a superhero story to me. I’m crazy about it.” – Actor Nick Offerman in a 2017 interview


Hanks Tom2

“A visitor will know that Pittsburgh is a great city because Pittsburgh has been greatly tested, and in those trials in your days of struggle, Pittsburgh has set an example of what can come next and what can come next is good.”– Actor Tom Hanks, days after the synagogue massacre in 2018


“[Pittsburgh] has risen from the ashes like a phoenix. Other countries want to learn: What was it that Pittsburgh did that made it successful?” – U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, on a visit here in 2022

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