While some people simply want to villainize the private sector, the fact is that the private sector drives jobs growth; we need to channel the energy and innovation of employers to generate opportunities for the entire labor market.

When your economy is not growing that fast, everybody's got to bite the bullet.

If we want to close the achievement gap, build a well-educated workforce and responsible citizenry, we must start with our youngest children.

I loved baseball. I was a pitcher. I loved being on the mound because I also loved being at the center of the action, the cat and mouse battle with the batter on every pitch. You had to develop grit.

On Mother's Day, we take a moment to stop and honor our mothers for all they do. It has been my privilege to know mothers who have turned incredible loss and pain into tremendous advocacy and greater social change.

What I remember most vividly was the sense of always being a little behind the other kids in class - that sense of I wasn't cut out for class or I wasn't cut out to read.

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.

If you ask me about Donna Lynne, she's one of the flat-out most talented people I've ever worked with, and I've worked with some pretty talented people.

A mayor is a symbol and a public face of what a city bureaucracy provides its citizens.

A great country acknowledges it's mistakes.

Denver is a city that will be far more defined by its future than its past.

America is always attracting people, from all over the earth.

Isolationism is not leadership.

A fundamental way to build and expand our middle class and economy is to create a modern and well-paid workforce.

Democracy is based upon empathy and the recognition that some decisions are solely for the community's benefit without regard to one's own narrow self-interest.

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.

From the first day we opened Wynkoop, my brewpub in Denver, I knew I'd be ten times better running a restaurant than I was a geologist.

And if I lost I would have gone back to 12 weeks of vacation, because I was successful enough that I was spending much more time on non-profit boards and traveling a lot.

In terms of all kinds of things, in terms of educational reform, in terms of health care, transportation, Colorado has a chance to be a national model.

When there's work to be done in Colorado, for Colorado, we should look to skilled Coloradans first.

There could have been more planning in New Orleans, but you look at all the devastation that happened there - have we gotten to 3,000 deaths yet? For that magnitude of a disaster, that's not all that bad.

I was skinny. I wore thick glasses. I had acne.

Whenever I've met with businesses that want to locate in Colorado, the state's infrastructure for moving people and products is a top concern.

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.