"You can draw any kind of picture you want on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra, or Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax."

"Those who can, build. Those who can't, criticize."

"I raise my stein to the builder who can remove ghettos without removing people as I hail the chef who can make omelets without breaking eggs."

"The hurt in my heart and the agony in my soul were of such intensity that when I was home and first got the news of a national homosexual bill similar to the one in Dade County, all I could do was cry. This bill, HR2998, would have the effect of making it mandatory nationwide to hire known practicing homosexuals in public schools and in other areas. With all the thousands of other letters I received from groups all over the country dealing with pornography, abortion, TV violence, ERA, and various other things, all I could do was weep for America. There are no words in the English language strong enough to describe the grief I felt."

"On a dusty wall of McSorley's Old Ale House, the oldest Irish tavern in New York City, hangs an autographed portrait of the late New York Mayor Ed Koch. Koch inscribed a pro-IRA slogan below his portrait and above his signature, an apparent appeal to the tavern's Irish Catholic owners: "England out of Ireland." Koch was, of course, one of the Democratic Party's most vocal supporters of Israel's settlement enterprise. He smeared critics of the occupation of Palestine as "terrorist supporter[s]." The irony of his inscription can hardly be overstated."

"If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist."

"I'm the sort of person who will never get ulcers. Why? Because I say exactly what I think. I'm the sort of person who might give other people ulcers."

"The people have spoken ... and they must be punished."

"Death penalty: The death penalty will not solve the problem of crime, but it is more than merely symbolic. There are some people who commit murder that so subvert society that they deserve nothing less than a death sentence. I believe, as does the Supreme Court, that some people will be deterred by it."

"For more than four years it has been my honor and my privilege to serve as the leader of the greatest police department in the world. This organization is made up of police officers, detectives and leaders who every day and every night go out and earn the title New York's Finest, and to have the opportunity to lead them and serve the people of New York City is something I have cherished and will always look back on with pride."

"He's had a tough life. As is not unusual in Jewish families - if you've ever seen the movie Avalon - I think somebody's cut the turkey on Uncle Louis a few years ago... That doesn't change my view of him when I was young and he was a detective."

"I’ve told Rudy that as long as he returns my phone calls, I’m here to stay. The day he doesn’t, I’m gone."

"He's pond scum, and you can quote me on that."

"Howard Safir is the reason I gave up 19 years in the [[Wikipedia:United States Marshals Service|[U.S.] Marshals Service]]."

"I don't want anything to do with Howard Safir. If you put my name anywhere in an article about Howard Safir, there will be repercussions."

"Mayor Giuliani is a strong and principled leader. I saw firsthand his leadership in helping transform a crime-ridden New York City into the safest large city in our nation, while increasing preparedness by opening the city’s first Office of Emergency Management. He has always shown uncompromising courage in the face of challenges. I am proud to lead First Responders across America who support Rudy for President."

"Firefighters across the country have no greater friend than Rudy Giuliani. Those of us who have worked with Rudy Giuliani know he has always been a strong and consistent supporter of firefighters and first responders. On September 11th and the days that followed Mayor Giuliani once again demonstrated his commitment to the safety and well being of our firefighters and his respect for their extraordinary courage and sacrifice."

"My job is to play music, not politics, and my only obligation is to the people who pay to listen to me. I don't attempt to ram hackneyed, insipid tunes down the public's throat just because they've been artificially hypoed to the so-called 'hit' class. This policy of trying to maintain some vestige of musical integrity has, naturally, earned me enemies, people who think I'm a longhair, impressed with my own ability. Nothing could be farther from the truth. My faith in dance music — I refuse to call it swing — borders on the fanatic. I have the utmost respect for the many real musicians who are creating a new music as important as the classics, but I have no respect for musical clowns who lead an orchestra with a baton and a quip. However, more power to them if they can make it pay."

"You run into a party and [a] woman comes up to you. She's the most beautiful creature you ever saw — Ava Gardner — and says, "I like you and why don't we get together?" What are you going to say, "No"? You'd have to be an idiot. She was an incredible creature."

"It became such a hit that it superseded anything that any band had ever had. It was the first time that a so-called swing band played something melodic and still gave it a beat."

"The renaissance of New York City has been built on a foundation of crime reduction, and for the last four years, Howard Safir has worked tirelessly to increase safety and the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The extent to which he's succeeded—on his watch, crime is down by 38%, and homicide by 44%—is not only remarkable, it's a testament to his skill and dedication. During Howard's tenure, the Department reduced crime by more than it has under any other Police Commissioner. Howard has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in law enforcement. I wish him the best as he begins this new chapter in his life."

"Howard has a strong ego. He [also] had a very strong desire to be perceived as doing a good job, and that combination worked wonders for us... To this day, they love him for what he did."

"I hand him a lyric and get out of his way."

"I beg your pardon. My husband wrote "Ol' Man River." Jerome Kern wrote "da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da.""

"He's a meticulously hard worker and yet he'll roam the grass of his farm for hours and sometimes for days before he can bring himself to put a word on paper."

"If you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught."

"It's the new management's job to look at the world as it changes, and how do we look at change and take advantage of change, rather than put our head in the ground."

"I'm a lazy writer. My idea of heaven is not writing. On the other hand, I'm obviously compulsive about it."

"exclusively verbal humor have been conveyed by Harpo Marx, who with Charles Chaplin, Jimmy Savo, and Danny Kaye, ranks as a master artist of pantomime."

"O, Harpo Death and thy clanking harp, hear!"

"Harpo, she's a lovely person. She deserves a good husband. Marry her before she finds one."

"If I'm trapped in a theatre, and a show starts disappointingly, I have a handy way of avoiding it: I fall asleep."

"Many years ago a very wise man named Bernard Baruch took me aside and put his arm around my shoulder. "Harpo my boy," he said, "I'm going to give you three pieces of advice, three things you should always remember." My heart jumped and I glowed with expectation. I was going to hear the magic password to a rich, full life from the master himself. "Yes sir?" I said. And he told me the three things. I regret that I've forgotten what they were."

"Susan, an only child who never had any roots, and I, a lone wolf who got married 20 years too late, were adopted by the kids as much as they were by us."

"Like the East Side tenement, our house was seldom without the sound of music or laughter or questions being asked or stories being told."

"I was the same kind of father as I was a harpist - I played by ear."

"No worse than a bad cold."

"Without question, Steve is the best Broadway lyricist, past or present."

"Plays also, but musicals particularly—the last collaborator is your audience. So you got to wait until the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration. And when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. And things that seem to work well, work in the sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece, suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional, or a little overlong, or a little overweight, or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping in front of an audience."

"There's a place for us, Somewhere a place for us Peace and quiet and open air wait for us, Somewhere. There's a time for us, Some day a time for us Time together with time to spare, time to look, time to care, Someday. Somewhere we'll find a new way of living. We'll find a way of forgiving, Somewhere.'"

"If you're going to be a whore, be a high-priced whore."

"The best part of being on the stage was that I didn't have to go back to that mean Mr. Mayer after he tried to ruin my career."

"Don't make these pictures any better. Just keep them the way they are."

"The number one book of the ages was written by a committee, and it was called The Bible."

"You know how I'm smart? I got people around me who know more than I do."

"I will only make pictures that I won't be ashamed to have my children see."

"Porgy is…an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad setup. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power."

"George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe that if I don't want to."

"[I]t's only good songs that last, not good rhythm, and in the first six years or so of his composing George was interested mainly in developing new rhythms."

"Gershwin's melodic gift was phenomenal. His songs contain the essence of New York in the 1920s and have deservedly become classics of their kind, part of the 20th-century folk-song tradition in the sense that they are popular music which has been spread by oral tradition (for many must have sung a Gershwin song without having any idea who wrote it)."