In the restaurant business, you never want to have enemies, whereas it seems that many politicians judge their success by how high their enemies are and whether they can show that they can hold their ground and give a punch for every punch they take.
John HickenlooperSome day, someone will do something wrong and there will be a scandal to report in the paper. When that happens, we will address it honestly and openly and try to deal with it as quickly and as fairly as we can, and keep moving the city forward.
John Hickenlooper"On what motivated Colorado voters: "Let's face it, the War on Drugs was a disaster. It may be well intentioned ... but it sent millions of kids to prison, gave them felonies often times when they had no violent crimes ... I was against this, but I can see why so many people supported it."
John HickenlooperMedicaid is one of the rare times where Democratic governors are saying, "Hey, states' rights." We don't want the federal government coming in and telling us how to do our environmental remediation or how we're going to do our healthcare.
John HickenlooperEven as we continue to carry the banner of civil rights and environmental justice, we've also got to focus on many, many people - for them, life starts with a good job.
John Hickenlooper"On unanticipated problems: There's been "a dramatic increase in edibles." And "no one had ever worried about dosage sizes. The original edibles that came out, once you took the packaging off there was nothing to show it was any different than candy."
John Hickenlooper"As Colorado attempts to build its brand as a healthy state, marijuana "dilutes what you're trying to do."
John HickenlooperWe have a responsibility and an obligation to do everything we can to try to make this work.
John HickenlooperThere could have been more planning in New Orleans, but you look at all the devastation that happened there - have we gotten to 3,000 deaths yet? For that magnitude of a disaster, that's not all that bad.
John HickenlooperSome of the anxiety has been laid to rest. We don't see a spike in adult use. We don't think we see a spike in youth consumption although there are some things that are disconcerting.
John HickenlooperI assume we will have figured out a way to efficiently utilize solar energy and tied that to an efficient way to use nuclear energy in such a way that it doesn't pose a serious environmental issue.
John HickenlooperI may not have voted for Donald Trump, but I'm an American first. My entire administration is going to do everything we can to make him as successful as we can.
John HickenlooperWe will see the increasingly rapid rate of growth weve already been seeing in Colorado continue.
John HickenlooperI would argue that one of the issues which the public should be much more emphatic about with all politicians... is patronage, appointing people to high positions because they supported your campaign or helped you raise money.
John HickenlooperThe issue that a political campaign would make a human life into - you know - a political football, is unsettling.
John HickenlooperA mayor is a symbol and a public face of what a city bureaucracy provides its citizens.
John HickenlooperOf everyone else who was running, and there were some very talented people, none of them had anywhere near the experience I had in hiring people, holding them accountable, creating systems for accountability.
John HickenlooperPeople don't realize that almost two-thirds of the population in the United States lives in a state where either medical or recreational marijuana are now legal. Two-thirds of the country. I am looking at it as kind of a 10th Amendment, states'-rights issue.
John Hickenlooper"One of the best things about marijuana legalization: "I think the black market has been damaged. I think people are willing to pay taxes and to go through pretty rigorous regulation."
John Hickenlooper"One of the governor's concerns: "This high-THC marijuana, what can it do to a brain that is still developing?"
John HickenlooperEspecially during the first nine months, there was so much going on with trying to hire 55 people to run the city, it was hard to imagine any honeymoon.
John HickenlooperThere's nothing wrong with the Democratic Party that talks more about - and more loudly about - jobs, and cutting red tape, and bureaucracy, making it easier for entrepreneurs to start jobs, making it easier for businesses to grow and create more jobs. That has historically been the wheelhouse of the Democratic Party.
John HickenlooperI think the political reality for the Democratic Party is, you know, there are two sides. There's one side saying that we weren't liberal enough and another side saying we're too liberal. I think they're both right.
John HickenlooperAnd if I lost I would have gone back to 12 weeks of vacation, because I was successful enough that I was spending much more time on non-profit boards and traveling a lot.
John HickenlooperWe have tax revenue that's going to allow us to look in a much more comprehensive way at intervening in addiction.
John HickenlooperI think a couple things, I mean, you know, the tragic death of Matthew Shepard occurred in Wyoming. Colorado and Wyoming are very similar. We have some of the same, you know, backward-thinking in the kind of rural Western areas you see in, you know, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico.
John HickenlooperI look at some of the things that Donald Trump will do around cutting red tape, reducing bureaucracy, helping entrepreneurs, helping businesses grow more rapidly, more access to capital - I'm all for it. That's all stuff that I've been trying to do in Colorado.
John Hickenlooper