There is something magical about Cincinnati. Since it was founded in the late 1700s, Cincinnati has captured the interest of a variety of famous people, from writers and speakers to stand-up comedians, athletes and Hollywood icons. Some were born and raised here, others found their way here later in life and felt compelled to say something, anything, about the Queen City — even write poetry about it (well, at least about our wine).
From the chili to the neighborhoods and the Ohio River, here are 19 quotes from famous people spreading the Gospel of Cincinnati to the masses.
Emilio Estevez
“[Cincinnati]’s so cool! I love being able to tell people in L.A. or New York, either come visit us to see what the hell is going on, or please stay away. One or the other. But I think when they get there, their minds are blown at everything that’s going on in Cincy — between the breweries and the restaurants and the historical preservation of the architecture. It’s a really magical city. I call it the Paris of the Midwest. I didn’t coin that, but that’s how I feel about it.”
Emilio Estevez, the Brat Pack actor who gained fame in the ‘80s for his roles in movies like The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire, may have been born in Staten Island, but he’s very much a Cincinnatian now. Estevez says he fell in love with the Queen City during a promotional tour for his 2010 movie, The Way, later buying a home in Over-the-Rhine. In a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair, the actor bragged on his adopted hometown, calling up an 1800s nickname for Cincinnati, “the Paris of the Midwest.”
David Bowie
“I was on a tour in the United States back in ’89, and we did a show in Cincinnati. During that show, I shouted out, ‘It’s great to be in Cincinnati!’ That was a lie.”
Legendary multi-hyphenate David Bowie made this confession during a 2002 segment on Late Night with Conan O’Brien called “Celebrity Secrets,” but, more than likely, Bowie was just making a joke. Bowie never visited Cincinnati during his 1989 tour, having only visited the Queen City twice during his touring years — once in 1974 and the other time in 1976. Also, during the segment, Bowie “admitted,” “Sometimes when I’m at a McDonald’s and nobody is looking, I stick my hand in the straw dispenser and touch all the straws,” and “I’ve reinvented my image so many times that I’m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.”
Anthony Bourdain (on Cincinnati chili)
“You don’t ask what’s in it; you don’t ask how it’s made. You just enjoy it.”
The late Anthony Bourdain, who was best known for trying unique dishes across the globe on his TV shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, tackled Cincinnati’s beloved chili in one episode of No Reservations in 2012. In the episode, Bourdain and his friend, Michael Ruhlman, visited a Skyline Chili in Cleveland (we know, we know), where they sampled the Queen City delicacy. While Cincinnati chili can be polarizing to those not from here, Bourdain actually liked it and also called it “America on your plate.” You can watch the clip here.
Joe Burrow
“Fortunately, there’s not a ton to do in Cincinnati.”
In 2021, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said the team was able to avoid contracting COVID-19 because Cincinnati doesn’t have “a ton to do.” The remark was met with some agreement, some reproach, but it seems Burrow was just mostly kidding. While, yes, Cincinnati doesn’t have the glitz and glamor of bigger cities that might draw young athletes, Burrow isn’t known for hitting the town. He’s said in the past that he’s in bed by 8 p.m., and his father has said that Burrow was never really one to go out. But Burrow does think the Cincinnati Museum Center’s fossil collection is pretty kick-ass.
Charles Dickens
“Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favourably and pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as this does.”
“The inhabitants of Cincinnati are proud of their city as one of the most interesting in America: and with good reason.”
Famed writer Charles Dickens visited Cincinnati during his first trip to the United States in 1842, where he toured cities like New York, Boston and Washington D.C. and documented his experiences in his travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation. After it was published, the travelogue was criticized by many Americans, who felt it was overly critical of the U.S. (as Dickens traveled farther west, he grew more discontent with the country), but in it, Dickens had a lot of praise for the Queen City. It should be noted, however, that even though Dickens wrote favorably about Cincinnati, he admitted in a letter that he was forced to endure a boring party with “at least one hundred and fifty first-rate bores” and he added he believed his face had “acquired a fixed expression of sadness from the constant and unmitigated boring I endure” — this coming from one of the wordiest men in literary history.
Sarah Jessica Parker
“We go back to Cincinnati all the time. It is a very impressive, exciting city. And it’s beautiful.”
Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker grew up partly in Cincinnati, attending the School for Creative and Performing Arts at one point. The star recently appeared on an episode of the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” where she praised the Queen City, especially the cultural offerings, including the theater Playhouse in the Park, where her father worked. “We went to a lot of theater and University of Cincinnati, their conservatory has an incredible theater department. We went to the ballet all the time. Like, there was a lot of opportunities to be outside,” Parker told host Alex Cooper. You can listen here.
Sam Wyche
“Will the next person that sees anybody throw anything onto this field point them out and get them out of here? You don’t live in Cleveland; you live in Cincinnati!”
Even without the internet and social media, this quote from former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Sam Wyche went viral in 1989 and continues to live rent-free in the memories of many fans. During a game against the Seattle Seahawks in December of that year, Wyche, feeling compelled to stop angry Bengals fans from pelting referees with snowballs, grabbed a microphone and scolded the stadium. The dig at Cleveland was a reference to the rivalry between the Browns and Bengals at the time and the fact that Cleveland fans were often throwing objects at Bengals players during their games. The burn against Cleveland worked, earning Wyche cheers and ending the one-sided snowball fight. In 2016, Wyche said the quote still haunts him, though, as that’s what he’s often introduced with.
Katt Williams
“Got to love Cincinnati. This is the ugliest, nastiest, dirtiest, most beautiful place in all of the United States of America. Shit. You can just be driving in a nice neighborhood, just driving, just look at the architecture, and look at the clocks and the fountain and — Oh, my God. And then three seconds later, what the fuck … is that?”
Katt Williams, a stand-up comedian born in Cincinnati and raised in Dayton, Ohio, performed his 2006 Live special at the Taft Theatre, where he opened the show sharing what makes Cincinnati Cincinnati — the good and the bad. You can watch the full show here.
Pete Rose
“I love the fans, I love the game of baseball and I love Cincinnati baseball.”
Former Cincinnati Reds player and part of the Big Red Machine Pete Rose (a.k.a. The Hit King, a.k.a. Charlie Hustle) was well-known for his love of all things baseball and all things Cincinnati. Rose said this to fans gathered at Hollywood Casino in 2010 after the 25th anniversary of his record-setting No. 4,192 hit. During his speech, Rose addressed the gambling scandal that earned him a lifetime ban from baseball and apologized to his teammates, saying, in part, “I disrespected the game of baseball. When you do that, you disrespect your teammates, the game and your family.”
Ron White
“I did a show in Cincinnati last year … I was looking for something to eat and across from the club is a place called Skyline Chili. Next door to that’s a place called Gold Star Chili. Across from that is Liberty Chili, Ray’s Chili, Joe’s Chili, Bob’s Chili, chili everywhere. Now, I wasn’t trying to start shit with the little chili boy; I was making late-night conversation, and I said, ‘Boy, it seems like there’s a whole lotta chili places here; you wouldn’t think that, would ya?’ And he goes, ‘I’ll have you know the Cincinnati area is the chili capital of the world.’ Oh. Excuse me for thinking it might be Mexico City or Guadala-goddamn-jara.”
Stand-up comedian and Blue Collar Comedy Tour member Ron White did this bit on Cincinnati’s beloved chili in his 2003 album Drunk in Public.
Joey Votto
“Cincinnati is a prettier city than people give it credit for. I like it here, like the people. They’re so polite.”
In 2012, former first baseman Joey Votto shared his thoughts about the Queen City in an interview with Toronto Sun. Votto said some visiting baseball players would come to Cincinnati and say the city is ugly, but he thought Ohio and Kentucky offered beautiful views. At the time, he also praised Cincinnati for its lack of traffic — in comparison to his home city of Toronto — and its family-friendliness.
Ryan Murphy
“Well, I’m from Indiana. So to me, when I was a little kid growing up, Cincinnati was the glamorous New York of it all.”
In an interview with Vulture in 2012, Ryan Murphy, a television writer and director best known for his shows like American Horror Story and Glee, was discussing how Glee and another one of his shows at the time, The New Normal, were both set in Ohio — at least for the first episode, in The New Normal’s case.
Doris Day
“I am absolutely thrilled to hear that Cincinnati is honoring me with not only my own street, but my own day. I couldn’t believe it. … I miss my hometown and have so many beautiful memories of growing up there.”
In 2017, the City of Cincinnati renamed a portion of Walnut Street downtown after Hollywood icon Doris Day, who was born and raised in Cincinnati. The actress couldn’t attend the renaming ceremony, but made an audio recording of the above statement, which former Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld shared at the time.
Tom Segura
“People will say, ‘What’s your favorite part of Cincinnati?’ I’m like, ‘I was 9, man. I liked recess and having snacks. I didn’t go anywhere. I was a kid.’”
Comedian Tom Segura was born in Cincinnati and spent part of his childhood here before his family moved to Minnesota and later Florida. He told CityBeat in 2009 that this short experience in the Queen City made it difficult for him to engage in conversation about the city, and we all know how much Cincinnatians like to talk about their city. (Where did you go to high school, by the way?)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“And this Song of the Vine / This greeting of mine, / The winds and the birds shall deliver, / To the Queen of the West, / In her garlands dressed, / On the banks of the Beautiful River.”
American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is best known for writing poems like “Paul Revere’s Ride,” “The Song of Hiawatha” and “A Psalm of Life,” but did you know he also wrote a poem about the wine made by Cincinnati entrepreneur and real estate speculator Nicholas Longworth? After he left New Jersey to settle in the budding city of Cincinnati in the early 1800s, Longworth planted a vineyard (where Eden Park now is) and began making sparkling Catawba wine. The wine was so popular, Longfellow wrote “Ode to Catawba Wine,” in which he talks a lot about different grape varieties and the taste and notes of the wine itself, but he also mentions how beautiful the city is in the final verse, seen above. You can read the whole poem here.
Ken Griffey, Jr.
“Well, I’m finally home.”
Former baseball outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. grew up in Cincinnati but played for the Seattle Mariners when he first joined the pros. When Griffey made it back to his hometown in 2000 after being traded to the Reds, he said this famous line upon being introduced by the team.
Winston Churchill
“Cincinnati, I thought, was the most beautiful of the inland cities of the Union. From the tower of its unsurpassed hotel the city spreads far and wide its pageant of crimson, purple and gold, laced by silver streams that are great rivers.”
British politician, military officer and writer Winston Churchill paid a visit to Cincinnati twice in his life, first in 1901 and then again in 1932 while touring the United States on a lecture circuit. In 1933, Churchill published his thoughts on the Queen City in the magazine Collier’s in an article called “Land of Corn and Lobsters.” Based on his description of the hotel in the quote above, it’s believed he stayed at downtown Cincinnati’s Netherland Plaza during his 1932 visit.
Curtis Sittenfeld
“I grew up in Cincinnati, the birthplace of the creamiest and most delicious ice cream with the hugest chocolate chips. … My all-time favorite flavors are black raspberry chip and mocha chip. As it happens, they also taste excellent together in the same bowl.”
In a 2018 listicle, bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld told New York Magazine everything she couldn’t live without, which included pints of Graeter’s Ice Cream’s Mocha Chocolate Chip. She says she even gave the ice cream to her agent and editor as holiday gifts.
Andy Dalton
“There’s a lot of good people here in Cincinnati, and there are a lot of people that are willing to help others.”
Andy Dalton, the Cincinnati Bengals’ former quarterback, shared this sentiment before his final game with the Bengals in December 2019, speaking on the support that the city gave to his and his wife’s organization, the Andy and J.J. Dalton Foundation. Dalton continued, “There was an instant connection there, and we just tried to be as involved as we can and tried to help out in so many different ways. You can’t do it by yourself. You have to have support from a lot of different people, and we’ve had support from the city.”
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