Quotes from Marion Barry

I have to admit I didn't do as much as I should have back when I was mayor, but now we're getting it done. It's not where you've been but where you're going.

This is not a sham, not a game. This is the real stuff.

I like boxing.

If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate.

I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?

People blame me because these water mains break, but I ask you, if the water mains didn't break, would it be my responsibility to fix them then?

What dragged me down was not being mayor - it was insecurity, the need to be accepted by everyone, the pleasure syndrome. That's what brought me down.

Why should blacks feel elated about seeing men walk on the moon when millions of poor blacks and whites don't have enough money to buy food to eat on earth?

White folks may let you in their country clubs to play golf, invite you out to dinner, take you out to play tennis, but when it comes to dividing up the money, that's a whole 'nother story.

Love is very fleeting with me. I don't know why.

In Washington, I have worked hard for the people, and I've been loved by the people.

I am clearly more popular than Reagan. I am in my third term. Where's Reagan? Gone after two! Defeated by George Bush and Michael Dukakis no less.

The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist.

Who can better help our city recover than someone who himself has gone through recovery?

I love serving people. I love helping people empower themselves.

I read a funny story about how the Republicans freed the slaves. The Republicans are the ones who created slavery by law in the 1600's. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and he was not a Republican.

I promise you a police car on every sidewalk.

There are two kinds of truth. There are real truths, and there are made up truths.

What right does Congress have to go around making laws just because they deem it necessary?

The brave men who died in Vietnam, more than 100% of which were black, were the ultimate sacrifice.

People have criticised me because my security detail is larger than the president's. But you must ask yourself: are there more people who want to kill me than who want to kill the president? I can assure you there are.

Everybody in life has something that they get knocked down on. The object lesson here is not that you get knocked down - it is that you get up.

We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up business and dirty shops. They ought to go.

I am a great mayor; I am an upstanding Christian man; I am an intelligent man; I am a deeply educated man; I am a humble man.