Art & Creativity Quote by Edward Koch

Politics as aesthetic: not principled argument, not policy craft, but the high of the transaction. Koch frames dealmaking the way an artist talks about brushstrokes, lifting it out of the grubby realm of compromise and into something almost noble. Its a shrewd reframing. "Deals" can sound like backroom horse-trading; "art form" turns it into mastery, taste, even public service by implication. The line also telegraphs a mayoral philosophy that treats governing as a contact sport where outcomes matter more than purity.

The subtext is performance. Koch isnt just saying he negotiates; he is telling you how to watch him. Big deals are his canvas, and the city is the gallery. The comparison to painting and poetry does a second job: it flatters the speaker while gently dismissing conventional cultural prestige. He is not chasing refinement; he is chasing leverage. "Preferably big deals" is the tell, a confession that scale is part of the thrill, that he measures success in spectacle and impact, not incremental improvement.

Context matters: Kochs New York was a place where the machinery of government had to function amid fiscal crisis hangovers, union power, ferocious press scrutiny, and constant inter-borough politics. In that environment, dealmaking isnt a personality quirk; its survival. The final phrase, "Thats how I get my kicks", punctures any sanctimony. He admits the pleasure principle behind the public role, signaling a politician comfortable with ambition and appetite - and inviting voters to see that appetite as fuel rather than corruption.