John Catsimatidis

"These days, I don’t think of myself as a Democrat or a Republican. I’m just a common-sense billionaire."

"I had a dream the other night. I was a character in the movie *Planet of the Apes,* the original and still the best of the series. I was walking along a river. I wasn’t sure where I was. Crazy stuff was happening all around me. Then I looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty. I knew I was in New York, the center of everything, that place of endless possibilities, where the future really does live in your head and your hands. That image focused me. It motivated me. I knew it was time to take care of business, time to get busy writing this book."

"My parents never considered themselves poor or oppressed or downtrodden. Why should they have? They had ambition. They had hard work. They had each other. And they also had me, their first and only child, a brand-new generation to carry their dreams forward. America was the land of opportunity. Lucky for us, we were here."

"Rising to the highest levels of the Democratic Party, then rising to the highest levels of the Republican Party (how many people can say that?). Giving millions and millions of dollars away. Thinking of running for mayor, then actually doing it."

"“The unexamined life is not worth living,” the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates supposedly said. The truth is we don’t know if Socrates really said that. The great teacher didn’t write anything down. All we have to go by are the reports from Plato and other star students. But I’m inclined to believe what they say. I like examining things, my own life included. That’s how I improve myself. That’s what I’ve always done: look at the situation, whatever it is, turn my brainpower on it, and then try to solve the issues that I find. That’s how I built my businesses. That’s how I’ve run my life."

"That was the world I grew up in: twentieth-century immigrant New York. My life began with learning English; making friends; playing stoopball, stickball, and Johnny-on-a-Pony on the sidewalks of West Harlem. Obeying my parents and studying hard, like a dutiful child should. Climbing through public school and Greek school and all-boys Brooklyn Tech. Learning to hustle, learning to lead, picking up side jobs along the way. Buying my first car. Getting my college diploma—*almost*. Disappointing my parents by walking away from a promising professional career. Then turning a small grocery store into a sprawling New York empire that boasted some of supermarketing’s proudest names. Discovering that I liked doing business and had a knack for it. Who knew? Expanding the business. Expanding the business some more. Meeting"

"“Your life is the stuff of drama and mythology,” my friends keep saying to me. “What kind of drama?” I ask. “Comedy or tragedy? What kind of mythology? Greek or American?”"