"It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone"
About this Quote
Then Jong twists the knife with “city of mirages.” A mirror at least reflects something real; a mirage is desire projected onto heat and distance. That’s the subtext: urban life runs on appetites that can’t quite cash out. Ambition, romance, reinvention, fame - the city sells them as near enough to touch, then keeps them shimmering just ahead of you. It’s not only that people are fooled; it’s that the city’s magic depends on people wanting to be fooled.
“At once solid and liquid, at once air and stone” is the line that makes the metaphor physical. Solid/stone is the brute fact of infrastructure, rent, hierarchy, the hard edges that grind you down. Liquid/air is volatility: crowds that flow, trends that evaporate, relationships that dissolve, the sense that everything can change overnight. Jong’s phrasing captures why cities feel both liberating and predatory: they offer constant motion while staying structurally immovable.
In the context of Jong’s broader work - intensely alert to performance, freedom, and the costs of yearning - the city reads as a psychological climate. It’s not a backdrop; it’s a mirror-mirage machine that turns wanting into weather.
Quote Details
| Topic | Poetry |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jong, Erica. (2026, January 17). It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-the-city-of-mirrors-the-city-of-mirages-at-58213/
Chicago Style
Jong, Erica. "It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-the-city-of-mirrors-the-city-of-mirages-at-58213/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-the-city-of-mirrors-the-city-of-mirages-at-58213/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
