Most gun dealers follow the law and run honest businesses. But the statistics show that 1 percent of dealers sell more than half of all illegal guns. Why isn't the federal government going after them? Here's one reason: unlike mayors, members of Congress don't get a phone call in the middle of the night when a cop is shot and killed. They don't deliver the eulogies.

Well, we have to provide the world's best schools. We certainly don't have them, but that's our objective.

Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil.

Government by three men in a room has turned New York State into a national symbol of governmental dysfunction. Enough is enough!

We cannot continue. Our pension costs and health care costs for our employees are going to bankrupt this city.

You must first be willing to fail — and you must have the courage to go for it anyway.

This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing. It's not politically viable; it's not morally right; it's just not going to happen.