Edward Koch

When all are wrong, everyone is right.

I’m not the type to get ulcers. I give them.

The best way to lose weight is to close your mouth – something very difficult for a politician. Or watch your food – just watch it, don’t eat it.

In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist.

In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound.

If you seek violence, we will seek to put you in jail.

If you don’t like the President, it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don’t like the Governor, it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don’t like me, 90 cents.

We’re in the hands of the state legislature and God, but at the moment, the state legislature has more to say than God.

The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.

The art of creation is older than the art of killing.

If I traveled to the end of the rainbow as Dame Fortune did intend, Murphy would be there to tell me the pot’s at the other end.

Water, water, everywhere, Atlantic and Pacific. But New York City’s got them beat, Our aqua is terrific!

Tone can be as important as text.

The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend.

The knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again.

If they don’t want to pay for it, they can stop drinking it.

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.

The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.

I was born at the age of twelve on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot.

I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish – occasionally I do windows.

You don’t have to love them. You just have to respect their rights.