Quotes from John Hickenlooper

It is a sad reality that active shooter drills are a standard way of life for kids as young as pre-school.

Especially during the first nine months, there was so much going on with trying to hire 55 people to run the city, it was hard to imagine any honeymoon.

Universal background checks work. You keep the guns out of the hands of dangerous people. That shouldn't be partisan - that should be something we can all agree to, but it became this huge battle and, you know, really, really a challenge.

I never ran for student council or class president or any of that stuff. I didn't hang out with those people. It was just a different universe from the one I inhabited.

To achieve the kinds of innovations needed to tackle the climate crisis, government must not shun the private sector, but rather must work closely with industry and our nation's great research universities.

You looked at Stanford or Harvard, or the University of Colorado, these were powerful engines just turning out people ready to create and grow businesses.

We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that is alive in Colorado.

The Affordable Care Act was passed in large part because of recognition that our nation's health care system is not working. The act is not perfect, but it is a starting point, and we have been using it to improve the health of Coloradans.

Infrastructure investments lead to jobs. And quality of life starts with a good job.

Almost all government starts at a very local level at some point.

When I got inaugurated in 2010, OneRepublic donated their time and played for the inauguration. And my stepfather, who is 86, came out. He usually goes to bed at eight o'clock, but he stayed for the entire concert. It was awesome.

Slavery is the nagging, unrelenting shame of America that continues to deny the true promise of the country to too many its citizens. If we ever hope to change that, we must begin by owning our past and acknowledging the shame, the sin, the injustice, and the ongoing consequences of enslaving an entire race of people.

In 1999, I found myself the unlikely leader of a community-based effort to protect what was arguably Colorado's most important brand, and one once thought to be untouchable: the 'Mile High' part of Denver's Mile High Stadium.

I assume we will have figured out a way to efficiently utilize solar energy and tied that to an efficient way to use nuclear energy in such a way that it doesn't pose a serious environmental issue.

Many of the basic lessons of business, such as the critical value of customer service or measuring risk against reward when investing capital, have essential application in government, but not in a vacuum.

Government requires bringing people together and genuinely hearing their issues. It requires the establishment and strengthening of community.

If it was really successful, it was a life calling, a career I was excited about doing, so I didn't think the overall risk was anywhere near as high as what the reward was.

One's ability to enter into thousands of lawsuits as a tool for success, or to use bankruptcy to avoid paying your former employees and vendors, have little relevance when trying to create good government.

From my subjective position, there was no honeymoon.

I can say that every ad that I control, that I'm going to make sure my ads are positive.

The vice president can play a real role in that, in helping solve some of the biggest problems in the country.

I think we're in good shape, but the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is in some small way mitigated by the fact that we now have more people talking about it, thinking about it and working on it, so that we will be more vigilant and ready.

You don't get to choose what your legacy is.