Quotes from Vicente Fox

I am an honest person, transparent, that look citizens straight in their faces.

Change will not come from above, it will come from below, from the small and medium size businesspeople. They do dare to show their faces. They applaud us and help us financially.

On one side, citizens have great respect for the United States; they have a great feeling of friendship. That is solid. But in the opposition and in the political arena I often find criticism of the closeness of relations with the United States. That is a reality.

We would betray Mexicans' hopes for change if we felt satisfied with what we've accomplished so far.

I think it's very important that the United States keeps out of the local electoral process in Mexico.

So if Arizona sees the federal government isn't assuming its responsibilities, it creates local laws. But migration and keeping security on the borders is not a local or state issue, it's a federal issue.

I think there's a big misunderstanding on the value of migrants.

Our number one priority is to spend every peso possible to include those who are currently excluded.

At the very end, what is going to happen is that immigration will be reduced considerably. And how can we get to that stage? By agreements on sectors.

Monuments and archaeological pieces serve as testimonies of man's greatness and establish a dialogue between civilizations showing the extent to which human beings are linked.

There's no doubt that Mexican men and women - full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work - are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States.

No doubt I enjoy being close to people in the way I dress, the way I speak, and the way I communicate with people.

I should say many things. Mexico has been one of the losers of the 20th century. We tried many different alternatives to development and unfortunately we have 40 percent of the population poor; we have a per capita income that is extremely low.

Prohibition didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple.

We are a nation in which freedom is alive in the squares and streets, in the daily work of the communications media, in the open relationship between the governing and the governed.

I mean, we must act with intelligence. We must work on this framework, so that immigration becomes an asset to both nations. Believe me, what - just the Mayor Bloomberg said here in New York, that this city would be stopped, totally stopped if it were not by the immigrants working here.

To me, governing is communicating. That facilitates the whole job because I can listen, I can hear what people have to say, and at the same time I can let them know what are we working on, what is our strategic line, and where are we going.

Mexico doesn't deserve what has happened to us. A democratic change is urgent, a change that will permit us to stop being a loser country.

You may count on Mexico's support, since your commitment to the noblest causes of mankind and your vast experience are and will be invaluable in enabling us, together, to achieve a better world.

I believe that work can be done on security; in combating terrorism in Mexico we have done our part in this area. But at the same time, the world must continue working.

Fortunately, I have money that's from my life's work. But it's money that I share and used greatly to fight poverty in my country.

I have decided to fight for my country, because we have build a success story in Guanajuato, with real results and more yet to come in the next two years.

I part of this great nation because my grandfather was born here, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He took a horse, back in 1895, and ride it all the way down to Guanajuato, looking for his American dream. No penny in his pocket, only dreams in his head. And he was an immigrant coming from the States into Mexico. And he found his American dream in Mexico.

The real end winner of NAFTA is going to be Mexico because we have the human capital. We have that resource that is vital to the success of the U.S. economy.