“I want to be the candidate placed on the ballot by the people, not the party.”

I’ve been not only articulating the dissatisfaction with Albany, I’ve been acting on it. I’ve been very aggressive in bringing public integrity cases and public corruption cases and bringing cases against sitting legislators

People who assume I want to run for elected office may be dealing from a bad assumption.

I think there’s a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.

I believe global warming and climate change are real threats to our planet.

New York State is upside down and backwards; high taxes and low performance.

I was elected to come to an incredibly dysfunctional capital and make the government work better, and that’s what I’m doing.

Politicians are good listeners. Because if they’re not, they aren’t politicians for very long.

I haven’t lost my head yet.

I am fiscally prudent and socially progressive. I believe in protecting a woman’s right to choose. I believe in marriage equality.

I don’t think anyone would argue with the notion that there have been serious abuses on Wall Street.

People are rightfully upset about Wall Street abuses and excess.

I know how bad Albany is. I know it better than most. I understand why people are angry. I’m angry. The question is going to be, how do you change Albany, what is the plan for change, and then how do you actually get it done?

If I’m breathing in 2016, I’ll be happy.

I believe we need to attract a new generation of the best and brightest to public service and I believe that government can be a source of inspiration, not degradation.

The essential job of government is to facilitate, not frustrate, job development.

A governor can be a very good friend to people. A governor can be a formidable force.

Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.

In our society, marriage is not simply a governmental institution; it is a religious institution as well, today’s decision might change the former, but it cannot change the latter.

The Constitution was a product of its times.

And I don’t think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there’s another set of moral codes, but I don’t think government has a role.

If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything-and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.

Every lawyer, no matter whom they represent, is trying to help someone, whether it’s a person, a corporation, a government entity, or a small or big business. To me, lawyering is the height of service – and being involved in this profession is a gift.

I cannot accept this invitation for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia Convention… To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]

As soon as government management begins it upsets the natural equilibrium of industrial relations, and each interference only requires further bureaucratic control until the end is the tyranny of the totalitarian state.