Quotes from John Catsimatidis

Material things don't matter.

People tell me, 'You better lose weight if you want to run for mayor.' I said, 'I got the Chris Christie look.'

I started in the supermarket business in the early '70s. And by '75, '76, I realized you don't have a business unless you own the real estate.

I'm not a Johnny-come-lately Jew. I've been around. I watch out for the Jews; I watch out for the Catholics.

Pizza is no longer on my diet.

I'm a Bill Clinton social Republican.

I believe business has to do well and that the surrounding communities do well.

New York is for everybody; it's for the poor, it's for the middle-class, it's for the wealthy. We can't punish any one group and chase them away.

Am I a Republican? Yes. Am I a Democrat? Yes. Am I a conservative? Yes. Am I a liberal? Yes.

I think New York is destined to have a Democratic mayor, and I want Freddy Ferrer to be that mayor.

Nobody destroys people - people destroy themselves, and it's very, very sad.

My father died in '97. But at least he lived until 93, so he saw my success.

I think the rich should pay more in taxes - I agree with that 100 percent - but everybody should feel the pain a little bit.

We are teaching kids to fail. We need to teach our kids to succeed.

While in my late teens and in my 20s, I worked seven days a week, 20 hours a day. I worked my tail off.

What transpired at Semgroup was no less than a $500 billion fraud on the people of the world.

The Fresh Direct model doesn't work.

It will be almost impossible for any other candidate to raise the money that the Clintons can raise.

I put $5 million into the real-estate business when the world was coming to an end, and three years later, by 1980, I woke up and was worth a hundred. That's a lot of money back then.

I promoted myself as a fusion ticket. I was running as a Republican liberal.

New York never felt the recession. New York never felt a depression.

America always recovers.

I grew up on 135th Street. I grew up on the poor side of New York. I grew up in Harlem.

I respect John Kennedy for saying that he had a dream that we'd go to the moon before the end of the decade.