I just want people to know you can get through stuff. I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.

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.

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.

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

When you stand up there and do a press conference, it's a very preoccupied moment. You're standing in front of cameras; people are watching you; it's not so easy to be at ease.

I'm an aggressive woman who gets things done, and that's the way it is, and I've never been embarrassed about the fact that I am pushy.

I couldn't describe how little interest I have in men. Or I could - but I don't think that it would be appropriate.