On the plane here someone told me: “The best thing about London is Paris”.
Well I arrived in New York for the first time in my life yesterday, and I have to say: “The best thing about New York is New York.” I fell in love with it from the moment I stepped out of the airport into the cold and crispy morning.

For many years I always believed that the image of proud America was just good advertising, but now I completely understand why. I would be to. Almost all of my preconceptions of the city and it’s people were broken within the first half hour. I mean where else can you buy a warm pretzel and mustard on a cold street corner and have a conversation with the vendor who’s also a foreigner while there are hundreds of conversations taking place al around you at once, and you feel like absorbing every one of them and becoming part of that which we call the human race. Never before have I felt so part of the global culture, than I did in one afternoon on the streets between Time Square and the Metropolitan. Never before have I been so close to tears while looking at a painting. I never thought that a Monet or a Van Gogh or a Picasso will move me so profoundly. I was standing in front of a work of art so beautiful, my eyes wanted to overflow with beauty and emotion.
The city was truly amazing and what I’ve seen of it so far, have impressed me more than any other city I’ve ever been to.

What makes my experience so much better is the fact that I am here to work with the people of Focus Features on my film and build future relationships with them, meeting like minded and passionate people. That only starts today, so more on my experiences about that in the next episode of “the Perceptions, Conceptions and Reflections of Global Citizen”