Ed Koch Quotes
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Twelve years ago, if someone attacked me, I wouldn't let them get away with it. I'd take them on. I now perceive my job to include allowing people to vent their rage.
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Whenever I leave Manhattan, I get the bends!
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Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world.
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I know many writers who first dictate passages, then polish what they have dictated. I speak, then I polish - occasionally I do windows.
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I'm coming to the end of my life. I do reflect on what I've done for the 85 years that I have been given so far. And I'm proud of what I've done.
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The person who is bent on killing you will follow you wherever you are.
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Jews have always thought that having someone elevated with his head above the grass was not good for the Jews. I never felt that way. I believe that you have to stand up.
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I was not afraid of the press or the militants. It was uncomfortable, but I was not afraid. With respect to the press, I knew I knew more than they knew about city matters. With respect to the militants, I understood it. I mean, everybody believed in those days that they were being screwed, you know, that somebody was getting ahead of them.
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I think I have a very good reputation amongst the gay population and among the whole country because I stood up on the issue of gay rights. It is not easy to stand up on that issue when you are single and male in New York City. I did it anyway.
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You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.
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There's a nastiness out there that wants to harm me with words. These are my enemies - the ideologues, the populists, the columnists who don't like the fact that I take them on toe-to-toe. What I try to do is tell the truth. It's not the coin of the realm in politics.
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I injured myself politically when I took on Jesse Jackson' in the 1988 presidential campaign. I was too strident. I didn't recognize the emotional tie that he had with all black voters.
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In action be primitive; in foresight, a strategist.
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You want me to tell me the truth or do you want me to stroke you?
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I probably enjoy campaigning more than most other people in public office because I like people and I enjoy going out there and telling people what I've done.
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Have you ever lived in the suburbs? It's sterile. It's nothing. It's wasting your life.
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My brain is good, but my body is deteriorating. I probably have another two or three years. Or I can pass tomorrow, but it doesn't make a difference to me.
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I was drafted into the Army when I was 19 and came out at age 22. Most people that I knew didn't think they'd come home alive. I didn't think I would either, so I was happy when I did.
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We're in the hands of the state legislature and God, but at the moment, the state legislature has more to say than God.
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It is not possible to remake the world. You can fix parts, but you can't remake the world.