Antonio Villaraigosa Quotes

Every president, Democrat or Republican, every Congress, has gotten behind the idea that we have to invest in our highways, our bridges, our roads, our airports. The idea that now this is somehow a partisan issue, it boggles the mind.

There are teachers' unions around the country realizing they want to improve standards of the profession, improve the quality of their profession, and ultimately attract the best and the brightest to their profession. The vast majority of teachers are dedicated and committed.

Don't let the Monday morning quarterbacks stop you from being bold. You've got to set a high bar.

The Democrats and Republicans need to come together. I've criticized Democrats for their unwillingness to address entitlement reform and Social Security and Medicare. Republicans, on the other hand, never saw a tax that they liked, even when it meant closing tax loopholes. They don't want to in any way support any revenue enhancements.

I say to people that Los Angeles is a city of America's hope and its promise. It's a city where we come from every corner of the Earth here to make the American dream happen.

My kids and I are spending time together. And we're enjoying that. Family is important; I was gone a lot in the 20 years of public service.

Again, if I was going to call Romney and the Republicans stupid, I'm certainly not going to call the Democrats and President Obama stupid.

How you are perceived is over a continuum of time. So I just keep on working. I've kind of always seen that as the antidote. Just keep on working.

I want to be known as the mayor who happens to be Latino who made a difference. I ran to make a difference.

The fact is this is a great country because we've always embraced immigrants. The fact is we have every right to enforce our borders and to protect them, but we also need to provide a pathway for citizenship.

Too many Californians are struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and send their kids to college. They are looking for progressive leaders in Washington who will fight for them, like Senator Boxer has done for over 20 years.

Let me be clear - no one is above the law. Not a politician, not a priest, not a criminal, not a police officer. We are all accountable for our actions.

I believe in family values, and I believe that we all ought to be able to have a family and marry if you want to. I don't think the government should be in that business of denying people the fundamental right to marry.

I believe that the mayor of the most diverse city anywhere in the world has to be a uniter, has to be someone that's comfortable in every community, has to be someone that represents all of us.

I'm excited about Los Angeles because I believe in her. I believe in her destiny. I think that the fact that we have so many different people from so many parts of the world is a big reason why L.A. is the city of America's promise.

The fact is, when you hear the Republican candidates on immigration, when you see them and hear them talk about contraception, mammograms, abortion, and not the economy, it's clear to me they're moving farther and farther away from the mainstream.

We're not a homogeneous party, anymore than the Republicans are. But we are a party that I think has a plan to take us forward.

Actually, as president of the Conference of Mayors, we passed the Simpson-Bowles plan as a template, as a template, as a frame work for moving forward and the president has done the same.

My father was predisposed to drunken rages. I would hide under the bed. My sister and I were talking just the other day about the terror a drunken man in a rage can create in a child.

You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.,

In no small part I think all of us kind of look in the mirror and feel good or not feel good about the person we seen in the mirror in no small part because of the jobs we have.

I have decided not to run for the U.S. Senate and instead continue my efforts to make California a better place to live, work, and raise a family. We have come a long way, but our work is not done, and neither am I.

I don't want to describe either Governor Mitt Romney or the Republicans as stupid, but I will say this - if you look at their platform, the 2012 platform, it looks like it's from another century and maybe even two. It looks like the platform of 1812.

I'm not looking for a battle with anybody, neither the council nor our labor partners.

Some critics say I spent too much time on politics. I don't put much stock in the critics.

I've always said that L.A. is the city of America's future. It is to the world what London was in the 19th century and New York in the 20th because of the growth of the Pacific Rim countries. We're the portal to the emerging world.

The great thing about our system of democracy is when they call you for jury duty, you have to come ... It's an honor and a privilege. I was called and I've got to be here.

I know that my heart and my family are here in California, not in Washington, D.C.

I've made no secret that although I loved being a legislator, I particularly loved being a chief executive.

Everybody knows that L.A. is known for its addiction to the single-passenger automobile, the gridlock, the congestion on the freeways.

When I ran the first time in 2001, they called me 'The Latino Mayor.' By the time I left in 2013, with a 58 percent approval rating, half the people liked me, half the people didn't. I was everybody's mayor. There was never any criticism that I was just for one group.