Our goal here in New York is to ensure that every child who graduates high school is ready to start a career or start college and to dramatically increase the number of students that graduate from college.

Nobody wants a job where they don't have authority to go along with the responsibility. Quite the contrary. The more authority you give people, the better people you can attract, and the harder they're going to work, and the more loyal they are going to be.

The politics of partisanship and the resulting inaction and excuses have paralyzed decision-making, primarily at the federal level, and the big issues of the day are not being addressed, leaving our future in jeopardy.

We're [New York] the world's second home, the place where every religion is practiced and every culture is celebrated.

For sure I would prefer Trump had not withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. But the fight against climate change is really done at the local level - whether it's cities, local governments or the private sector, corporate and individual. No matter what Trump says, nobody is going to go back and take the scrubber out or change back to polluting. The damage that Trump can do is if there are countries that are on the fence about whether they want to address the issue, this gives the naysayers, the doubters, those that don't want to do anything, a little more ammunition.

One's a dog-eat-dog world, and the other one's just the opposite.

I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.