Sourced

• The press – the popular press – is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.
  • Quoted in Roy Greenslade, "A decade of diplomacy," The Guardian (2001-02-05)
  • Comment made in 1989 after a series of salacious stories in the tabloid press

• The tabloids are like animals, with their own behavioural patterns. There’s no point in complaining about them, any more than complaining that lions might eat you.
  • Quoted in The Independent (1992-11-03) following his resignation in September of that year

• Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick-skinned, short-sighted, and always ready to charge.
  • Question Time, BBC1 (1992-12-03)

• [Sir James Goldsmith] has got nothing to be smug about, and I would like to say that 1,500 votes is a derisory total. We have shown tonight that the Referendum Party is dead in the water, and Sir James can get off back to Mexico knowing your attempt to buy the British political system has failed.
  • Quoted in Brian Cathcart, "Were you still up for Portillo?" (Penguin Books, 1997), pp. 63-4
  • From a speech following his defeat in the 1997 General Election and directed at Sir James Goldsmith

• There is no design involved. It would look tawdry down the wrong end of a beach in Torremolinos. This isn't a case of just not wanting it in my backyard. This area is historically significant with listed buildings and it's next to the Tower of London, which is a world heritage site.
  • Quoted in Anil Dawar, "'Build a tower block? Not in our dockyard,'"The Telegraph (2006-05-30)
  • Comment on the proposed construction of a 17-storey block of flats near his home in the St Katharine Docks, London

Quotations about David Mellor

• Since the great days of Jimmy Greaves, it's the only time anyone's managed to score five times in a Chelsea shirt.
  • Tony Banks, Mellor's close friend and fellow Chelsea fan, after a kiss-and-tell story appeared detailing how Mellor wore football kit during sex. Quoted in "The wit and wisdom of Tony Banks," BBC News (2006-01-08)

• This is the first time in ages that David Mellor has done the decent thing.
  • Bill Hagerty, editor of The People, on Mellor's resignation following the sex scandal. Quoted in "1992: Mellor signs over sex scandal," BBC News: On This Day (undated)