I think it's really important to realize that small businesses are often the portal for immigrants into the New York City economy.

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'm not about talking and finger-pointing and complaining; I'm about getting things done.

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

Being an activist is about getting things done. It's not about standing around shaking your fist in anger.

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.