 As a matter of fact, even when I finished law school, I had no notion of public service then. |
| My mother came here to New York. She and my grandmother were domestics, cooking, cleaning for other people. |
| I went to Israel when the missiles were falling there. |
| In 1975 I was among a group of blacks who formed the Black Americans in Support of Israel Committee. |
| The art and culture that is New York, communications, finance, all these things help make up New York. The rest of the country should be happy that we are what we are. |
| And I tell people I'm in charge of children, children I haven't even met yet. |
| You can't twist Al Sharpton's arm. |
| This is about these particular candidates in this particular year. That's what motivates me. |
| There is no point in me worrying about what Bloomberg or Badillo will do. |
| I finished law school in '56, but I was working two jobs. |
| We have not always agreed, but I have said repeatedly and publicly many times that Al Sharpton has never counseled violence, but he gets blamed for a whole lot of that. |
| Some of us claim that New York City is the capital of the country, indeed the capital of the world. Now, that may be a bit much for those who don't come from New York, but clearly we are an important city for reasons of our cultural advantages. |
| But I make the observation that no one of us would do things exactly alike. |
| Today, certain people file for bankruptcy, businesses and individuals, and it no longer has the stigma it once had. Now it's almost considered wise, a way to regroup and come back again. |
| I love children, and most of my involvement now has to do with children or youth programs. |
| And, as a matter of fact, I am the chairman of the Amadou Diallo Foundation. |
| Well, I think I am a very, very lucky person. I'm very fortunate. |
| Well, I'm not sure, but of one thing I am certain: History judges one differently than contemporary observers, and so I think that as time passes, I hope that not me personally so much, but our administration will be seen for some of the things that we accomplished. |
| Children are amazing, and while I go to places like Princeton and Harvard and Yale, and of course I teach at Columbia, NYU, and that's nice and I love students, but the most fun of all are the real little ones, the young ones. |
| Well, I was about six or seven, and my mother and father separated. |
