In the country the darkness of night is friendly and familiar, but in a city, with its blaze of lights, it is unnatural, hostile and menacing. It is like a monstrous vulture that hovers, biding its time.
I have bizarre anxiety about being in a city - I have no idea who I am or where I am.
I once asked a policeman how far it was to the subway. he said, "I don't know, no one has ever made it".
I wasn't really a beach boy. I was a city boy, afraid of the ocean.
L.A. kind of scares me.
I'm still terrified of flying. I really have to get drunk to fly. I've found that I've developed fears I never had before... fears of heights, claustrophobia... only in cities, though, never in the country.
People are too afraid of uptown. A lot of people will tell you, like, "Don't go to Harlem. You can never go there. 'Cause as soon as you get there, they kill you." That's what people think. As soon as you arrive in Harlem, someone just stabs you in the face right away. That's people's image of Harlem: just everyone standing around waiting for lost white people to kill all day. "Did you see any? I didn't either."
A lot of people are scared to come visit my hometown, but to me, violence is everywhere, man.
I don't like Johannesburg, where I grew up. Everybody lives in 'gated' buildings, is paranoid about crime and is always talking about being mugged. It's not a very joyful place.
I am too sick to lay down the sidewalks frighten me the whole damned city frightens me, what I will become what I have become frightens me.
I grew up in New York City, so I have, like, an inherent fear of trees, I think, in general.
Big cities do evoke a sense of menace.
I just love the idea of never seeing a city before and seeing the glow in the distance, and it just looking frightening, like you're driving into a fire.
I moved to Los Angeles when I was 20 years old and was absolutely terrified. I grew up in a small town, so the city itself scared me. I initially did not plan on staying but fell in love with it and never went home.
It's unnatural for people to run around the city streets unless they are thieves or victims. It makes people nervous to see someone running. I know that when I see someone running on my street, my instincts tell me to let the dog go after him.
I have this irrational fear of north London - it feels like proper London, scary and fast moving.
A lot of my friends who grew up in Manhattan have a strange phobia about Brooklyn. It's big and scary and they get lost.
