"In a neighborhood, as in life, a clean bandage is much, much better than a raw or festering wound."
"I'm not the type to get ulcers. I give them."
"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 knife of corruption endangered the life of New York City. The scalpel of the law is making us well again."
"If you seek violence, we will seek to put you in jail."
"You don't have to love them. You just have to respect their rights."
"The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are."
"The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse."
"If they don't want to pay for it, they can stop drinking it."
"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."
"Water, water, everywhere, Atlantic and Pacific. But New York City's got them beat, Our aqua is terrific!"
"I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows."
"When all are wrong, everyone is right."
"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."
"The art of creation is older than the art of killing."
"I was born at the age of twelve on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot."
"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."
"In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist."
"The mere process of growing old together will make the slightest acquaintance seem a bosom friend."
"Maybe he just looks good compared to the bores he's running against."
"Clinton has more important things to worry about. He not only risks being destroyed historically, like Afghanistan's Buddha statues; he also could end up going to jail."
"There was always a love-hate relationship with New York in the rest of the country, but I made them feel more love than hate."
"I said, to be a New Yorker you have to live here for six months, and if at the end of the six months you find you walk faster, talk faster, think faster, you're a New Yorker."
"Tone can be as important as text."
