I came up in a time where the assumption was, in the '60s and '70s, where the federal government was a great agent of progressive social change, it was the intervener in the best sense, and it would come and address injustice forthrightly.

If you talk to a lot of people in government, they will talk about the pathway to getting something done rather than the thing itself. And I just talk about material outcomes.

I've spent my life at public work, and I've spent many a day on a good cause that didn't have any lift, didn't have enough support, didn't have enough resources, and you could only get so far.

Bill de Blasio Quotes