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

My professional life has been about public service. My personal life I define very intently through my family.

I think small business is struggling in New York City. It’s a fantastic market, it’s a very appealing market, there’s lots of opportunity, at the same time it’s a very difficult place to build a small business.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

Inventing your dream is the first and biggest step toward making it come true.

When I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was ‘It will be O.K.’ I would wonder, ‘How the hell is it going to be O.K.?’ The worst word in the English language is ‘hope.’

As best I can tell there was no advance warning of the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, which was the first significant foreign terrorist activity in the U.S. No tip-offs that it was coming.

Getting back on the surfboard after the [shark] attack was the hardest thing and I did it! After that, the hardest thing was my first competition.

French was my first language.

If you make the opportunity. you’ll be the first in the position to take advantage of it.

I was going to do a book about the first prearranged Karpov-Kasparov match, ’84-’85. But the God-damn Jews have stolen my entire file on that.

My first ‘SNL’ episode was with Michael Phelps and Lil Wayne. And if you go back and watch the monologue.