I'm going to do whatever I have to do to help a New Yorker, whether it's a girl on the street or a tenant in a housing development.

I have always said I've had a big personality, and I've always said I'm a pushy broad, and I've always said I want to get things done.

The library of my elementary school had this great biography section, and I read all of these paperback biographies until they were dog-eared. The story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Madame Curie and Martin Luther King and George Washington Carver and on and on and on.

People used to feel oddly empowered to tell me all the reasons I couldn't win. Because I was a woman. Because I was a lesbian. Because I was from the West Side of Manhattan.

We all think people deserve second chances. None of us are perfect.

For better or worse, when you're running for mayor, there's a little bit of a spotlight on you.

Anybody that I can work with that will help improve the lives of New Yorkers, I will work with that person.