Antonio Villaraigosa Quotes

Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat' sold more copies in India than in the U.K. The market for go-getting business books or wonkish tomes by corporate moguls posing as philosopher kings has grown dramatically in modernising China and India.

American future lies in the East. The great free markets of the Pacific Rim are the American destiny.

What is New York? A straightforward answer: seven million people crushed onto an island originally settled by the Dutch. But it's more than that. These are seven million who were, mainly, not even born here.

Singapore is an international city, and it would be a grave mistake to close our doors.

I lived in L.A. for four years, and basically, every corner you go to, or in a restaurant, you can't even find people from the same background.

We need foreign skills to stay competitive.

I actually think Johannesburg represents the future. My version of what I think the world is going to become looks like Johannesburg.

Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Atlanta: those are all cities that really didn't get big, didn't hit their stride until the 20th century.

The world, whether we like it or not, will become more and more borderless.

Today we're dealing with metropolitan Shanghai, metropolitan New Delhi or Paris. If we're competing at that level, our diversity, that richness of people coming from so many different backgrounds, is one of our greatest advantages.

I'm fascinated by how ethnic communities have assimilated into massive capitalist environments.

Moving to Los Angeles and working in places like Hawaii, you get to experience a true melting pot. It's really nice to be around people who are multiethnic.

People tend to migrate from the third world to the metropolises of the very countries that once dominated them. Algerians to Paris; Puerto Ricans to New York; Pakistanis to London.

The United States is in a fierce global competition to attract the world's best high-tech scientists and engineers -- most of whom are not white Christians.

Civic rationality and modern capitalism triumphed in the medieval northern European cities – but not in Chinese, Indian or Muslim cities

I think any city that does the Olympics takes on the world and has to grow and has to kind of assimilate all sorts of folks.

In Cardiff, I've heard a number of accent mixes that weren't previously heard before such as Cardiff-Arabic and Cardiff-Hindi. This pattern is repeating itself in many urban communities across the U.K.; people are especially keen to develop a strong sense of local identity.

People from all over the world come to London wanting to make their own mark on it, and they add to the energy and vitality of the capital. It's got a bit busier since the '60s, but the more the merrier!

Seoul is becoming a global city.

We all have to acknowledge a simple fact: Africa is growing.

When I was growing up, many of my relatives had never seen a black person before. Today, hundreds, maybe thousands of Africans live in Istanbul's old city alone. It's hard to imagine their lives in their human totality.

Globalization cannot take shape without the speed of light.

Today, our world is more interconnected than ever. This offers many opportunities; it creates wealth and new freedoms. Yet our world is also vulnerable, full of friction points and conflicts of interest.

Hong Kong never had prestige. It's gone from fishing village to where it is today.

New York is celebrated as a leader in our nation's quest for progress because ours is a city built by the labor of a thousand different shades and accents.