Businessman

Advertising is what I do. It's got me everything I have, and I'm not going to leave it.

I've never met a client who wants to be the worst.

My first marriage ended after 24 years.

I only know two to three people that I grew up with in advertising in the 1960s who are married to the same women.

I'm happy to pay my fair share - which is whatever the tax is right now.

There's nothing worse than winning but being told by people that you're losing.

Money is being wasted on adverts that go right over a consumer's head. They may win awards at Cannes, but they lose at the cash register.

I want to die at my desk.

I came into advertising in 1961. I had been turned down for jobs on the Ford account in the late Fifties as 'not their type.' If it hadn't been for Bill Bernbach, I would now be sitting in some luncheonette, continuing my life as a messenger.

Once you're not No. 1, it doesn't matter where you are.

The French are simply incapable of telling the truth.

Sometimes you have to scare people to save their lives. But I'm very much against it if you're trying to sell a product.

Why do all our friends and relatives destroy the summer for us? Why can't they get married in February?

I think people are getting bored of parties, and hosts are terrified nobody's going to show up. So they have to start entertaining them before the party even starts.

Let's face it: in advertising, you are paid more, but you die younger. It's not very forgiving. Like sports stars, you're in it during your better years, and then you're out looking for work.

'Mad Men' is celebrating a time that no longer exists.

The Internet is king. Newspapers are dead or dying. Magazines are shrinking every day. Ad budgets are being cut. The bottom line is now the only line in advertising.

I ran for political office in the Hamptons once in a war I was having with the village. I came in, there were four people running, and I came in around third. It was over my food market - they arrested me. I just wanted to go for office because I thought it would be an interesting to do.

I invented myself.

Sad to say, negative advertising really works.