Joe Lhota

My favorite is always the book that I'm currently reading.

Rudy Giuliani did some phenomenal things in the city if you think of the transformation of the city and the quality of life.

What was unique about me being in City Hall during the Giuliani Administration, I was the only one who wasn't an attorney. I may have been the only one who didn't work in a prosecutor's office. So I took a completely different point of view on how the city should be run. Very close to a business, very close on metrics and numbers.

I know Rudy Giuliani. I like Rudy Giuliani. I worked with him during his administration. But we're completely different people.

I was born here in the city, born in the Bronx. Son of a cop. One grandfather was a taxi driver; the other was a firefighter. New York is in my DNA.

There were 23 or 24 separate tax cuts during the Giuliani administration. I'd love to be able to equal that.

I've been marching in every single ethnic nationality parade all throughout the City of New York. We're all Americans first and foremost, but people understand their heritage and it's good to see.

I have Czech, I have Russian, I have English, I have Italian. Uh, what am I missing? A little bit of Irish. The Russian is Jewish. So I'm your classic American mutt.

Would I be the 3rd term of Rudy Giuliani or the 4th term of Mike Bloomberg? It'll be neither. It'll be the first term of Joe Lhota. We're all different.

In 1964, I tried to convince my grandfather, who was active in the New York City firefighters union, to vote for Barry Goldwater over Lyndon Johnson because at the time I thought his approach to limited government was right on.

The role of government is to steer us in the right direction, not do all the work for us.

We've made tremendous strides and changes in the City of New York since 1994.

I am extremely respectful of the Jewish community. You know, I am Christian. I think of Jews as my older brothers. I mean, there wouldn't be Christianity without the Jewish religion. There is a direct connection between the two of them.

My dad was a New York City cop. His father was a New York City fireman. And my mother's dad was a city taxi driver.

My earliest memories are of my father explaining to me the American Dream and how he expected me to do better than he did.

I would leave school every day and walk to my grandparents' house under the El because everyone worked. I was 6 and walking home alone from school. It was a different city and a different time.

I was born a limited-government person. I've always had this streak going through me.

Government is to point you in the right direction, and not to do everything for you.

Government should steer, not row.

I still am a virulent anti-communist. It is a bad system, an immoral system, and one that takes away the rights of people and the rights of individuals. And everywhere it's gone, it's failed.

It's been 35 years since I left school. Almost nine of them were in government; all the rest were in the private sector. And I've proven over time to be a great leader.

Mayors of New York have been elected not because of their party label, but because of their philosophy and their approach overall, and that has been since time immemoriam in New York, that people are not party-oriented in New York.

I do fear God, but I will also tell you that when a doctor diagnoses you and the word 'cancer' comes out of his mouth, at that point, it changes your life and you do fear less and it also has allowed me to be a lot more open as a person. It's changed me.

What I learned from 9/11 that is really important, first and foremost, you have to motivate all the workers and understand that they've left their families to help clean up a pretty awful situation. Every time you have an emergency management situation, it's all about teamwork.

People should be respected for the strength of their convictions, and I also believe in freedom of expression.