“We are New Yorkers. Proud citizens of the greatest city on earth. Thinking big isn’t new to us. It is the very foundation of who we are.”

Going back to high school and college, I believed I would be involved in public service. I literally could not conceptualize anything else.

Not only do they offend thee, O Lady, who outrage thee, but thou art also offended by those who neglect to ask thy favors … He who neglects the service of the Blessed Virgin will die in his sins … He who does not invoke thee, O Lady, will never get to Heaven …

Forgiveness is, first of ali, a gift I give myself.

I love the MLB app, because I’m a pretty obsessed baseball fan.

We do not ask more of the wealthy to punish success. We do it to create more success stories.

I’ve always had a very positive relationship with the municipal labor unions – a respectful relationship.

I believe there’s an emerging American majority for progressive economic change.

A holistic solution to income inequality is going to take a lot of work, but every time you prove that one of the strands is achievable and that it has a positive impact on people’s lives you take another step towards proving the bigger theory of the case.

I think a lot of the best ideas come from the grassroots; I’m someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink.

I think like a lot of people in this country I want to see a vision. And, again, that would be true of candidates on all levels. It’s time to see a clear, bold vision for progressive economic change.

NY is the city it is today in part because of the contributions from generations of artistic visionaries

I haven’t smoked marijuana since I was at NYU.

There is nothing wrong with listening. You can listen to people; you can hear people’s concerns. You can keep an open mind and still be perfectly strong.

My parents were divorced when I was young. I was really brought up by my mother’s side of the family.

While this has been a private part of my family’s life, it is now clear a media story will soon emerge. My father tragically ended his life while battling terminal cancer in 1979.

I didnt set out with the notion of running for elective office; it sort of grew over time. And I honestly at times questioned if progressive change can be effected through elected office.

Suppose we took a thousand negatives… combining the elegances, the squalor, the curiosities, the monuments, the sad faces, the triumphant faces, the power, the irony, the strength, the decay, the past, the present, the future of a city – that would be my favorite picture.

Lincolnshire is the Idaho of England. You were either going to drive a tractor for the rest of your life or head for the city to work in a factory.

And when I told my sons I might be in City of Ember, they said, ‘Oh! You’re gonna be the mayor?’ And I hadn’t even read the script yet.

You wrestle one night, get up the next morning and fly out to the next city.

There is no doubt that many expensive national projects may add to our prestige or serve science. But none of them must take precedence over human needs. As long as Congress does not revise its priorities, our crisis is not just material, it is a crisis of the spirit.

Cities vary widely in the use of DNA testing.

I like the rough impersonality of New York … Human relations are oiled by jokes, complaints, and confessions-all made with the assumption of never seeing the other person again.

My dad was a city councilman and a county commissioner, so I grew up involved and engaged in the political process.