Ed Koch Quotes

I've never had a very great public life.

My father was a public figure all my life, and so the presidency was an extension of that. I guess you get used to it, though you can stand back occasionally and think, 'Boy, this is really weird!'

Being an actor, you are recognized for being somebody else, whereas these books are distilled from me.

I think it's totally up to the individual if they'd like a private life or if they'd like to be in the public eye - it's a choice you can make.

For me, in some ways, my whole life is a bit performative and always has been - because I'm stared at and looked at everywhere I go.

I owe 90 per cent of my life to people because I am a public figure, but 10 per cent is private to me. And I am not saying it in a defensive way. I feel my life has been made into a TV serial.

Live life and write about life. Of the making of many books there is indeed no end, but there are more than enough books about books.

I've lost count of the times I've been asked to 'be' Malcolm Tucker: to go on a political program on television, presumably in order to be the character and give opinions as him.

But everything of value about me is in my books.

I have some very personal feelings about politics, but I don't get into it because I do comedy already.

I kind of live a private life. I am out a lot, I have amazing friends and see a lot, so it's not like I'm a hermit. But I just know what I do for a living and that there are certain sensitivities.

I am a public person and I have my private life. It's important for me that my private life stay private, that what I share with the people is my public personality.

I write all of my material. It's all me.

I do music to tell people my thoughts and opinions about life, emotions, politics, everything.

Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.

Respect is one of the greatest expressions of love. If other people try to write your story, it means they don't respect you. They consider that you're not a good artist who can write your own story, even though you were born to write your own story.

It's much more important to write than to be written about.

I love writing. I've always written journals. I loved writing the book on living alone.

Whatever shall we do in that remote spot? Well, we will write our memoirs. Work is the scythe of time.

When I want to read something nice, I sit down and write it myself.

I go on writing so that I will always have something to read.

I would rather have written Fables in Slang than be President.

...I can write my own stories and I can write myself in.

When I used to teach writing, what I would tell my playwriting students is that while you're writing your plays, you're also writing the playwright. You're developing yourself as a persona, as a public persona. It's going to be partly exposed through the writing itself and partly created by all the paraphernalia that attaches itself to writing. But you aren't simply an invisible being or your own private being at work. You're kind of a public figure, as well.

Writing is the thing that props me up.