"Portland is a place where you can find a community as a feminist, a vegan or a fat activist. Artists, musicians, knitters, and filmmakers can all meet like-minded souls. It's proved the perfect place for me and all my punk friends."

- Beth Ditto in a 2007 article in The Guardian. 

Beth Ditto is an American singer-songwriter best known for with the inde rock band 'Gossip'. The Gaurdian published a story about Portland naming it the US's coolest city and Beth Ditto Portland's coolest resident. 

"Portland, Oregon won't build a mile of road without a mile of bike path. You can commute there, even with that weather, all the time."

-Lance Armstrong in a 2012 interview with The Huffington Post. 

The Huffington Post asked Lance Armstrong if he thought biking should be more of a viable mode of transportation rather than just for excerised. He praised Portland for being such a bike-friendly city. 

“We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven’s sake, don’t move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don’t tell any of your neighbors where you are going.”

- Tom McCall, 1971

Tom McCall was Oregon's 30th Governor from 1967 to January 1975. 

"I wanted to go to Portland because it's a really good book town."

- Patti Smith in a 2010 interview with The Oregonian. 

Patti Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and artist her rose to fame in the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. She spoke to The Oregonian in 2010 about her music and Portland. 

"When you move from a different country, it takes a while to make friends. I found myself being lonely a lot at first. In New Delhi, I had all my family. But Portland is one of those cities you can immerse yourself in and feel comfortable. People are so friendly."

-Kunal Nayyar in a 2011 interview with The Oregonian. 

Kunal Nayyar is an Indian actor and writer known for his role as Dr. Raj Koothrappali in the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory. He talked about his love for Portland in an interview with the Oregonian after visiting his alma mater the University of Portland. 

"When I first started going to Portland, people told me about Stumptown. They were like 'Oh, it's the best coffee,'and I thought, 'How good could it really be?' I'm like, 'Sure, great, uh... I'd love to see it.' But then when I went, it truly, I am not kidding, is the best coffee I have ever had."

-Fred Armisen

Fred Armisen is the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy show Portlandia. 

"At 13, when I was a runaway, I was taken in by the most amazing drag queens in Portland, Ore. We didn't always know where our next meal was coming from, but there was so much camaraderie and love. Not to mention, those girls could paint a face, and I learned how because of them."

-Rose McGowan in a 2011 interview with the Huffington Post. 

Rose McGowan is an American actress and singer best known for her role as Paige Matthews in The WB supernatural drama series Charmed. She spoke about her time with drag queens in Portland to the Huffington Post. 

"I think that people are surprised that I turned out the way I did despite growing up in Oregon.  I think people think of Oregon as such a granola, hippie kind of a place."

- Kaitlin Olson of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Kaitlin Olson is a native Oregonian and actress who stars in the hit FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Olson grew up in Tualatin and graduated the University of Oregon before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. 

"In recent years, breweries and brew pubs have flourished across the Nation. And, as the Representative from Oregon's fourth district, I have enjoyed seeing the diversity that craft brewery has fueled across the Nation."

-Peter DeFazio

Peter DeFazio is the U.S. Representative for Oregon's 4th congressional district, serving since 1987.

"Portland in particular is a cheap enough place to live that you can still develop your passion - painting, writing, music. People seem less status-conscious. Even wealthy people buy second-hand clothes and look a little bit homeless."

-Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk is an Oregon native who is most well known as the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club. 

"I don't think I would live outside of the Northwest. I think the quality of life in Portland is really good. People move from intense, high-powered jobs, and move to Portland, work half as much and live twice as good."

-Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Brownstein is the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy show Portlandia. She is a Portland native who rose to fame in the 90s and early 2000s for her work with the punk band Sleater-Kinney. 

"Other great rivers add power to you
Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too
Sandy, Willamette and Hood River too
So roll on, Columbia, roll on"

-Woody Guthrie, "Roll on Columbia" 1941

Woody Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician.

"That's swell. I like ya, Lloyd. I always liked ya. You were always the best of 'em. Best god-damn bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine - or Portland, Oregon for that matter."

-Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining

The 1980 film The Shining was partially filmed in Oregon at the Timberline  Lodge near Mount Hood. 

"Today, I honor the memory of those brave settlers of Oregon, and pay tribute, as well, to the native Americans already inhabiting this land before pioneers like my great-great-grandparents arrived here in the mid-1800’s. Such dreams those pioneers had for this territory. Some instinct drew them here, a fate a pulling, a desire for deep and lasting change in their lives. They embraced that change. They sought it out. Theirs was a quest for new horizons, for new beginnings. For a new homeland. They rode. They walked. They staved. They forge. And they died. But they kept their eyes westward. They gave us Oregon."

-Barbara Roberts, 1991 Inaugural Message

Barbara Roberts is the first female Governor of Oregon. She held office from 1991 to 1995.

"In the city of, roses
Streets lined with red brick, and green branches
Weren't rainy days that might seem bleak
Our rain is the paint that makes the land lush and the folks unique
City parks, wild berries, and old bridges
A rolling river bringing goods from the sea
A mountain hooded in snow silently watching over me
And everywhere I go these roots are with me, and I find,
I take along a little piece of heaven, with these memories of mine
From the city of roses, city of roses"

-'City of Roses' by Esperanza Spalding

Esperanza Spalding is an American jazz bassist, cellist and singer who grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland. 

"Well Portland Oregon and sloe gin fizz
If that ain't love then tell me what is
Well I lost my heart it didn't take no time
But that ain't all. I lost my mind in Oregon."

-Loretta Lynn 'Portland, Oregon'

Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter. She sang these lyrics in her song 'Portland, Oregon.'

"Let's meet in the city where
The rivers cross bridges there
Let's float down into the stream
Of rich and poor pioneers
A kid from a western town
Wants to be seen and go out
Let's borrow my parent's car
Let's stay out all night up there
And Burnside will be our street
Where the kids and the hookers meet 
Diners and strip club junk
Bookstores and punk rock clubs"

-'Light Rail Coyote' by Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney is an all female Portland-based punk band that rose to fame in the 90s and early 2000s. 

"The dream of the 90's is alive in Portland."

- 'Dream of the 90s,' Portlandia

The IFC sketch comedy Portlandia's pilot episode in 2011 featured an orginal song 'Dream of the 90s' about Portland's unique culture and weirdness. 

"In the long history of humanity, the most precious spark is that of individual freedom."

- Charles A. Sprague

Charles A. Sprague was the 22nd Governor of Oregon from 1939 to 1943.

"How Wild it Was, To Let it Be"

- Cheryl Strayed, 'WILD'

Cheryl Strayed is the New York Times bestselling author of WILD, a memoir about Strayed's 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in a journey of healing and self-discovery. A major movie adaption of WILD starring Reese Witherspoon hit theaters in 2014. The majority of the movie was filmed in Oregon. Strayed has called Portland home for nearly two decades now, since she settled here at the end of her journey at the age of 26. 

"The trouble in America is not that we are making too many mistakes, but that we are making too few."

-Phil Knight

Phil Knight is an Oregon native and the co-founder and chairman of Nike. 

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift,” and “You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."

-Steve Prefontaine

Steve Prefontaine ran track for the University of Oregon and competed in the 1972 Olympics. He once held the American record in seven different distance track events before he died in a tragic 1975 car accident in Eugene. 

"A healthy environment is essential to a livable Oregon and a strong economy"

-Ted Kulongoski

Ted Kulongoski  was the 36th Governor of Oregon from 2003 to 2011.

“Oregon is an inspiration. Whether you come to it, or are born to it, you become entranced by our state’s beauty, the opportunity she affords, and the independent spirit of her citizens.”

- Tom McCall, Address to the 1973 Legislature

Tom McCall was Oregon's 30th Governor from 1967 to January 1975. 

"No matter what time of year I come here, people always say the same thing: 'It's not usually like this.'"

-Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor is an author and radio personality best known as the host of Minnesota Public Radio show 'A Prairie Home Companion.'

"Portland is quickly becoming one of those lovely, lush Third World countries where kinda-rich people retire with their money. Here, they can live like kings, generating only service-industry jobs and jacking up housing prices." 

- Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk is an Oregon native who is most well known as the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club. 

"This activist loves Oregon more than he loves life."

- Tom McCall, 1982, Campaign to fight Measure 6, a repeal of Oregon’s Land Use Law

Tom McCall was Oregon's 30th Governor from 1967 to January 1975. 

"Ocian [sic] in view! O! The joy."

- William Clark, journal entry upon sighting the Pacific Ocean at the Oregon Coast.

William Clark was an American explorer and soldier who lived from 1770 to  1838

"I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world."

- Stand by Me

Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming of age drama film. 

"I love Portland. I think it's one of the best cities - I obviously haven't been to very many places, but I had one of the best times I've had on a set there."

- Mia Wasikowska

Mia Wasikowska is an Australian actress best known for her work on the HBO television series In Treatment, Alice, and The Kids Are All Right. 

"Don't you realize? The next time you see sky, it'll be over another town. The next time you take a test, it'll be in some other school. Our parents, they want the best of stuff for us. But right now, they got to do what's right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's bucket."

-The Goonies, Mikey

The Goonies is a 1985 Steven Spielberg film about a band of pre-teens who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon. 

"You have died of dysentary."

- The Oregon Trail (computer game). 

The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed in 1971. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.

"Where young people go to retire"

- Portlandia

The IFC sketch comedy show Portlandia coined this now iconic phrase in  their 2011 pilot episode.   

"As Members of Congress we can now engage with our constituents via online innovations like the Huffington Post, while a small business in rural Oregon can use the Internet to find customers around the world."

- Ron Wyden

Ron Wyden is the senior United States Senator for Oregon, serving since 1996.

"Statistically, Portland, Oregon has the most street kids, like kids that run away from home and live on the street. It's like a whole culture thing there. If you walk around on the streets, there are kids living on the streets, begging for money, but it's almost like a cool thing. They all just sit around and play music and squat."

- Laura Ramsey

Laura Ramsey is a film and television actress best known for her roles in She's the Man, The Ruins, Middle Men, and Kill the Irishman.