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

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools.

There was never a war on poverty. Maybe there was a skirmish on poverty

As my Sicilian grandfather used to say, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar, right?

I believe women still face a glass ceiling that must be shattered.

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.

I am against the death penalty.

The time has come to return integrity, performance and dignity to New York and make it the Empire State once again.

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

People go into politics because they want the affirmation, and they want the applause.

I respect the state workers and I respect their unions, but we simply can't afford to pay benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality.

If we had less people who don't know what they are talking about acting like they know what they are talking about, then that's one step closer to making the world a better place.

Today's zealots are mostly those pretending to be anti-religious.

A short time in the presence of the Friends (the Sufis) is better than a hundred years’ sincere, obedient dedication.

We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.

Death means a lot of money, honey. Death can really make you look like a star.

Essentially, there's no scientific evidence whatsoever that could ever be presented to me that would wipe out my fundamental spiritual beliefs.

Science robs men of wisdom and usually converts them into phantom beings loaded up with facts.

The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

In America, we believe that our happiness depends on getting breaks, even though being American is already the biggest break we will ever get.

Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.