Kwame Kilpatrick Quotations

We're giving Jerome a key to the city. Jimmy Kimmel wanted one, but we said no.

Mr. Hendrix looks good and beautiful, ... But he could not execute. He could not move a project. He could not shovel snow. He could not keep us safe. He could not fix the fire department. He destroyed the riverfront. We had 43 businesses gone. We couldn't build a stickman in the city of Detroit.

I don't know, but it looked like it caught him off guard.

I think there were a lot of people out there who were upset with me for one reason or another,

Just by a simple act of sitting down she stood up for so many people,

Other than the Rev. Martin Luther King, no other person has had such a role in changing (the African-American) vision of our community and our country,

We'll be marching forward, we'll be reaching out to everyone, we'll be rising up and standing strong, ... Detroit's best days are ahead of us.

We have told the federal government that we here in the city of Detroit are willing to step up and accept evacuees from both Louisiana and Mississippi,

We need unions to step up to us now,

We need the unions to step up, ... If we don't get to that deal in the next 14 to 20 days, we'll be back on the 21st day to address the issue, and it will be in further cuts.

Union concessions, there is no other way, ... You can't cut your structural costs without concessions.

When I spoke to the people from the state Bureau of Elections, they were not sure what security would be available, ... Needless to say, all the parties in this matter have an interest in the security of the ballots.

suburban guys coming into our community trying to raise up the concerns of people when this administration is going to the wall on this issue of disabled riders.

Detroit's been the butt of a lot of jokes for 50 years. We want to introduce the world to the new Detroit.

You're the one who was just voted the third-worst mayor for Time magazine, not Hendrix,

This advertisement is not affiliated in any way with the Kilpatrick administration or the Kilpatrick for Mayor campaign, ... Detroiters are very passionate people, and while I appreciate the spirit of some of the content, I do not condone the images in this advertisement.

That means if a Happy Meal costs $2.99, the total cost will be $3.05, with the 6 cents coming to the city, ... If you buy a medium fry for $1.05, the total cost will be $1.07. It's a small amount for the individual customer, but it adds up to a meaningful amount to preserve essential city services.

It?s very upsetting, to my wife and I. These allegations area absolutely ridiculous. I can?t wait for there to be an investigation into these allegations. A real investigation into these allegations, so people can move on.

I want them to see Detroiters that love themselves. All of us need to continue to stand up for our city,

This is crunch time. I love it. I love it. I love it.

The largest part of this gap is structural costs, ... Delphi, Northwest (Airlines), we are in the same position as all of them are.

In Birmingham, in Bloomfield Hills and all these places they do more meth, they do more ecstasy and they do more acid than all the schools in the city of Detroit put together.

In Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills and all these places, they do more meth, they do more Ecstasy and they do more acid than all the schools in the city of Detroit put together,

I never got in trouble in my entire life. Never. Until I got this job ... I have never been arrested. I have never come in contact with anybody in the criminal justice process, me or my family. I just want to know, can Mr. Hendrix say the same thing?

I'm asking you to trust what you raised, ... I'm asking you to give me another chance to move this city forward.

I'm asking for unity in this community, ... We understand this chair represents all of Detroit.

I know him. I know his father. There isn't anybody alive who hasn't done something they've regretted. He's a good man.

What is happening in Detroit is not good so I don't even want to be a part of that, but there is something on the other side that I may want to be a part of so I don't know yet.

Michigan is very racially separated and the city of Detroit itself is 84 percent African-American and the surrounding suburbs are 86 percent White.

There were never a lot of attacks on my work. We were building more parks than were ever built in the city, building more recreation centers, fixing more streets. We had national events, the Super Bowl, the (Major League Baseball) All-Star game, Final Four. We built seven hotels. The city hadn't built a hotel in 20 or more years.

I loved the city, so the feeling in 2001 [election] first was shock, then (I was) nervous, then scared but then it's - I really wasn't happy and ecstatic like I thought I (would be). I was immediately hit with the enormity of the responsibility and the fact that most people in that town - particularly those that voted for me were placing their hopes and dreams in me. That is a big, big stressful place to be.

I didn't want to be president; I didn't want to be governor; I didn't want to be a congress person. I just wanted to be mayor of the city of Detroit. I lived there my entire life.

My dream in growing up in the city of Detroit was to be Mayor. At the family picnics from the time I was 9-years-old that's what I told people I was going to be. The mayor of the city of Detroit.

As a matter of fact since Barack Obama has been president it is more overt - I believe - than it's been since the 1940's and 50's and so I am not surprised by it. I think it's an excellent teaching tool, particular for my sons and our people to understand that we still have to build within our community. We still have to work with one another. We still have to connect even with people outside of this country.

This is the United States of America and unfortunately, race still matters to a lot of people. The evil head of racism doesn't hide, it sticks its head up.

The job of being president, understanding the particular policies that America has gotten itself into over the past 400 years.

I was never fearful or scared. I knew God had me and my wife and children knew it as well so we just marched.

I don't think there has been any mayor in America scrutinized that way. I don't think there has been any mayor as a matter of fact, Coleman Young I think received an incredible amount of scrutiny and he was kind of the poster child for that in Detroit. He was the first Black mayor who really expressed his manhood in a different way than had been seen from African-American man that was projected across the country.

I know in the Christian church the old ladies use to say "what the devil meant for bad God meant for good." So some of the things that I think they went out and tried to be detrimental to my life saved me in a lot of ways.

I can be the mayor; I can do it right now. I can go in there right now and put things together. I was truly anointed for that position and I wasn't mature enough in my spirit, in my manhood to handle that responsibility at the time it was given to me.

I learned that you can go after things before you are ready and so if you are going after it, you need to make sure that your spirit is ready. I learned also how to surrender to His will and not mine. Sometimes when you are going through something - and I am a guy who runs campaigns - I can make this happen. There has never been a campaign where I was picked to win.. I was always coming from behind.

I heard somebody say that you can't judge a tree by the bark it wears but by the fruit it bears.

What I learned in politics (is that) it's a very enslaving place to be. It's hard to be free in politics and if the search for your spirit is to be free, it's hard.

We do need brothers and sisters to go into elected offices and political offices and do that, but my spirit is telling me something different. Because you are a Democrat or Republican you have to do this but you can't do that and so it's somewhat limiting in what you can actually do and I've done that.

I've been mayor so I believe there is something else for me. I don't know what that is yet, but I definitely have a testimony now brother! As far as talking to young couples, talking to brothers who are strong, they have it going on, they know exactly what they want to do, how they want to do it but they don't have any God in their life. They don't really move by a spirit. They are not really connected to the community. There is a testimony in here somewhere that I think I can share but I don't know.

My kids want to go back to Detroit everyday, that's their home. They want to be there. But Detroit is going through something that I don't want to be a part of.

When you are going through something like compaign run nothing happens without Allah's permission. So a lot of the times you just have to surrender to his will and learning how to surrender was a major thing for me, getting me out of the way, surrendering to the will of God.

Sometimes your gift takes you to a place that your character is not prepared to handle.

Character issues such as drug abuse are not exclusive to Detroit Public Schools. My reference to substance abuse, not intended to focus on any particular school district, was simply used to illustrate this position.

I was building the plane while flying it in the first term,

Personality is a person among persons. There is no personality of one man on a desert island.

You've got to help me solve those problems, ... We need each other in this city, in this region and in this state more than we've ever needed each other before. But the region can only be strong if you have a strong Detroit.