I always felt, and I still feel, that the media doesn't belong in a public official's private life. It's a very difficult balance, because if you are elected to public office, people have a right to know a great deal about you, and the press has an absolute obligation to report all of that. But the reality is that there are times in which the reporting is really happening for almost voyeuristic reasons, in the gossip columns. Maybe half of it is wrong, and half of it is correct, and a lot of it is exaggerated. You've just got to get used to that if you're in public life.

Didn't vet Bernard Kerik sufficiently for DHS recommendation.

You believe that you can win the nomination of your party, and then you believe that you're the strongest candidate to win the election for your party.

Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present.

My father used to say to me, 'Whenever you get into a jam, whenever you get into a crisis or an emergency, become the calmest person in the room and you'll be able to figure your way out of it.'

You want to do tax reductions, you want to do permanent tax reduction, reductions in spending. You've got to go out and explain it to the people, get them on your side and have them become the levers that you need in congressional relations.

When people endure a traumatic event, they are either defeated or made stronger. On Sept. 11, I told New Yorkers, "I want you to emerge stronger from this." My words were partially a hope and partially an observation that people in New York City handle big things better than little things. I could not be more proud of the way my city responded.