De Blasio Quotes & Sayings

Everything you heard about me is true ... I am not a free marketer ... I believe in the heavy hand of government. — Bill De Blasio

I have my loyalty to the team of my youth. Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. The team that I grew up with was constantly the underdog but managed to prevail. — Bill De Blasio

Everyone I knew was a Red Sox fan. Living up there in 1967 - the Impossible Dream season - that moment was incredibly compelling. I just naturally gravitated to the team. Nineteen seventy-five was arguably the greatest World Series of all time. — Bill De Blasio

Going back to high school and college, I believed I would be involved in public service. I literally could not conceptualize anything else. — Bill De Blasio

Mayor de Blasio has legalized ferrets. Now you can legally own ferrets in New York City. I want to tell you something. If I want to see anymore beady-eyed little weasels, I'll just keep riding the subway. — David Letterman

A holistic solution to income inequality is going to take a lot of work, but every time you prove that one of the strands is achievable and that it has a positive impact on people's lives you take another step towards proving the bigger theory of the case. — Bill De Blasio

We have come too far to go back, my friends. — Bill De Blasio

I haven't smoked marijuana since I was at NYU, — Bill De Blasio

There is nothing wrong with listening. You can listen to people; you can hear people's concerns. You can keep an open mind and still be perfectly strong. — Bill De Blasio

Clearly, Mayor Bloomberg did some things right. I think he did a very good job on public health. He did a very good job on environment. I think he was right to achieve mayoral control of education. I don't think he then applied it the right way. — Bill De Blasio

I've always had a very positive relationship with the municipal labor unions - a respectful relationship. — Bill De Blasio

While this has been a private part of my family's life, it is now clear a media story will soon emerge. My father tragically ended his life while battling terminal cancer in 1979. — Bill De Blasio

We are New Yorkers. Proud citizens of the greatest city on earth. Thinking big isn't new to us. It is the very foundation of who we are. — Bill De Blasio

As N.Y.C. Public Advocate, I released a report that showed that stop-and-frisks of African Americans in 2012 were barely half as likely to yield a weapon as those of white New Yorkers - and a third less likely to yield contraband. Despite this evidence, the vast majority of those stopped are young black and Latino men. — Bill De Blasio

I love the MLB app, because I'm a pretty obsessed baseball fan. — Bill De Blasio

My professional life has been about public service. My personal life I define very intently through my family. — Bill De Blasio

There are a lot of different demands on the campaign trail, but what matters most is that you connect with voters and take the time to really hear their concerns. — Bill De Blasio

There are families of every kind. I think a lot of people are struggling to make sense of their identity in a very complicated world. — Bill De Blasio

The one thing the police cannot protect us from is a politician like Bill de Blasio. — Bill O'Reilly

At a certain point, particularly in his third term, Mayor Bloomberg lost touch with the people he was serving. — Bill De Blasio

Mayor de Blasio said that whenever he goes to a Yankee game he gets sick and tired of people booing and giving him the finger. Hey, what do you want? You're the mayor of New York City. It comes with the gig, pal. — David Letterman

I think unionization is good public policy. I think when families secure their economic future, that's good for everyone. — Bill De Blasio

Happy Cinco de Mayo. In honor of Cinco de Mayo, mayor Bill de Blasio is filling all New York City potholes with guacamole. — David Letterman

My wife and family, to say the least, are the center of my life; they are my grounding. I don't want to sound schmaltzy, but they are my inspiration and you name it. — Bill De Blasio

De Blasio went even further, delving back into the Target fray. The pol was a trustee of the New York City Employee Retirement System, which owned shares in Target. The left had already forced Target to cease using money in campaigns via trade associations. Yet the retailer hadn't been able to shake the assault; activists sought to continue making an example of it. They scored a particular hit in 2011, when pop star Lady Gaga very publicly ended a deal with Target for her newest album due to its "continued political activity." Target's share price kept dropping. — Kimberley Strassel

I have an activist's desire to improve people's lives. — Bill De Blasio

Bill de Blasio was swept to the New York mayoralty on the promise of getting Gracie Mansion out from under the thumb of corporate elites. — Rick Perlstein

I am very much a Red Sox fan; I can name you more players than you could possibly imagine. It's just part of who I am. — Bill De Blasio

If we can have a fast food restaurant on almost every corner,
then we can certainly have a garden. — Bill De Blasio

I think like a lot of people in this country I want to see a vision. And, again, that would be true of candidates on all levels. It's time to see a clear, bold vision for progressive economic change. — Bill De Blasio

I think small business is struggling in New York City. It's a fantastic market, it's a very appealing market, there's lots of opportunity, at the same time it's a very difficult place to build a small business. — Bill De Blasio

I understand that not everyone agrees with my perspective on Ray Kelly. But what you gotta look at here is somebody like Bill de Blasio talking out of both sides of his mouth and trying to have it both ways on a really critical issue like stop-and-frisk. — Christine Quinn

I believe there's an emerging American majority for progressive economic change. — Bill De Blasio

My parents were divorced when I was young. I was really brought up by my mother's side of the family. — Bill De Blasio

I think you can be smart and directed and focused, without being obnoxious, and get plenty done. — Bill De Blasio

Mayor De Blasio's appointment of Bill Bratton as police commissioner is the height of hypocrisy. Asking Bratton to stop racial profiling and stop and frisk is like asking an arsonist to help you put out fires. Bratton along with his partner Giuliani started and supported racial profiling stops. A new progressive mayor? I think not! — Charles Barron

I think Bloomberg's broad vision of the environment in New York City is something I agree with. I broadly stand with his vision for how to deal with climate change and prepare for future weather events. — Bill De Blasio

I have a bold plan to break from the Bloomberg years, and end the 'Tale of Two Cities' by providing real opportunity to all New Yorkers, no matter where they live. — Bill De Blasio

We do not ask more of the wealthy to punish success; we do it to create more success stories. — Bill De Blasio

NY is the city it is today in part because of the contributions from generations of artistic visionaries — Bill De Blasio

I come personally from a broken family, divorced very early in my childhood, a family with its own share of troubles, so I think that was very influential in both me believing that someday I would consistently devote myself to my own family that I created, but I think it also really affects my view of the world. — Bill De Blasio

This is part of the president's problem. Where's Barack Obama been when the crime rate and the murder rate in Chicago has gone up in 18 percent? Where has he been when the murder rate in New York is up 11 percent? Instead he and liberals like Bill de Blasio and Rahm Emanuel and others, what they're doing is not supporting the police departments, not making sure that they're being supported, and they're letting them do their jobs. And so we have criminals who have easy access to guns. — Chris Christie

Congratulations to Ohio State, your new college football champions. Coach Urban Meyer may be the greatest football coach of all time. Don't confuse him with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. That's urban quagmire. — David Letterman

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has been positioning himself to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Hillary once developed a program to deliver rural healthcare, while de Blasio once dropped a groundhog on its head. — Jimmy Fallon

I'm someone who does not like a bunker mentality and does not like groupthink. — Bill De Blasio

I didn't set out with the notion of running for elective office; it sort of grew over time. And I honestly at times questioned if progressive change can be effected through elected office. — Bill De Blasio

Mayor de Blasio wants to eliminate garbage. He believes New York City produces way too much garbage. Well, heck, forget about producing too much garbage. What about late-night talk shows? — David Letterman