“Freedom does not mean people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.”
-Rudy Giuliani, New York Post Forum, 3/20/94

Since taking over at City Hall with his take-no-prisoners, in-your-face, my-way-or-the-highway style, Mayor Rudy Giuliani has, some say, tamed a city long considered ungovernable. Today, as never before, New York City reflects the priorities, values, and agenda of one single man: Rudolph Giuliani.
But as Hizzoner prepares to attempt a great leap Washington-ward as New York's next U.S. Senator, more and mor people in the city and across the country are asking: what hath Giuliani wrought? And why have his methods become so increasingly tyrannical?
Sayings of Generalissimo Giuliani goes straight to the source for the answers. This is a collection of the most memorable, (unintentionally) hilarious and downright alarming statements that have come our of Giuliani's mouth from his days as a federal prosecutor right up to the Brooklyn Museum fiasco, his campaign to arrest the homeless, and other current headlines. Here we let Rudy be Rudy – and, in so doing, offer readers as up-close and personal a view of the man as they will ever want to see.

Kevin McAuliffe has had a long career in New York government and politics, and worked behind the scenes at City Hall as a speechwriter and press aide under New York's last three mayors, Ed Koch, David Dinkins, and (briefly) Rudy Giuliani. He is also the author of The Great American Newspaper (Scribner), a prize-winning history of the early years of the Village Voice.

Malachy McCourt is the author of A Monk Swimming.