Published in the November 2012 issue

Interviewed September 11, 2012

Growing up, if we were having an argument, my mother thought that was great. At least we were talking.

Everything out on the table. You're not happy today? I wanna know why. Let's fix it and move on. I got that from my mother.

All the best managers in baseball were catchers.

I caught a guy in high school who went on to play pro ball. His father was this quiet retired Marine drill sergeant. This kid threw a ninety-four-, ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball. But he also had a good curveball. Freshman year one game, we made a guy look silly on two curveballs in a row — strike one, strike two. I called a third curveball. The kid hit it about 350 feet. That night I went to my friend's house for dinner. And his father said to me in his quiet way, "Chris, let me ask you something. That third curveball: I couldn't see from where I was standing. Did you call it or did Scott shake you off to the curveball?" And I said, "No, I called it." And he put his fork down on his plate — I can close my eyes and still see this guy doing this — and he said to me, "Don't ever do that again."

If you're gonna get beat, get beat on your best pitch.

I have so many ideas I want to talk about, but if you talk about too many, no one's going to hear you.

I think I'm much funnier reacting to people than I am just coming out and telling jokes. I have fun going back and forth. That's the atmosphere I lived in. Sitting around that kitchen table having dinner, you better be on your game. Because the conversation was fast and it was sharp, and if you wanted to be at the big-persons' table, you had to keep pace.

Very rarely do I have second thoughts about something I said. But one time I would have dialed it back was with the Navy SEAL at one of our town-hall meetings. I let him speak, I was trying to answer, but he kept interrupting me. And he told me he was a law student. So I told him, If you conduct yourself in court like that, you're gonna get your rear end thrown in jail by a judge. Now, I should have stopped right there. But then I said, "Idiot." He was acting like an idiot, but if I had the chance, I would have just ended it at telling him not to interrupt.

Every once in a while, you go a little too far.

If you try to play footsie with these union folks, they often interpret kindness as weakness. And you can't have that. You have to be able to perform acts of kindness to show people that you have it in you, but you also better be able to show people your tough side. If you don't, they'll try to walk all over you.

I would never do well in a legislature. I would be too frustrated.

I saw Jon Corzine leave a Bruce Springsteen concert early one time. You cannot be from New Jersey and have left a Bruce Springsteen concert early.

I am from here, and I am this place.

I was in the car coming home from a dinner the night I found out Clarence Clemons died. And I turned to Mary Pat and I said, "My youth is over." Because that's what Bruce and his band represents to me: It was my youth. It was my teenage years, my growing up, my college years — they represent that to me. You come to terms with the fact that you're getting older.

Last Saturday, I brought my first child to college. That night I was putting my twelve-year-old son to bed, and as I was tucking him in, he said to me, "Dad, do you miss Andrew?" And I said, "Sure." I said, "Do you?" And he said — this is a twelve-year-old — he said, "More than I have words to describe." Whew. So I tucked him into bed, and I said, "Well, listen, if you need to talk, you know you can talk to Dad." And he said, "Sure. You're my man." And I go to walk out of the room and close the door, and he said, "Dad, come here for a sec." So I came back in, and he said to me, "And Dad, if you need anything tonight, I'll be right here."

I feel caricatured at times as the Jersey guy, the fat guy. Sure. But I understand that if you're a public figure, that's what's going to happen. It's amazing how thick your skin gets — quickly.

My wife says to me, "Why did you make our son be a Mets fan? You coulda let him be a Yankee fan and he coulda been happy." I said, "As a Mets fan, he's going to understand pain and disappointment. Other losses that he experiences in life, he'll keep in perspective." You don't change your loyalty.

Supporting civil unions is practical. But to me, that doesn't preclude you from being conservative. There's all different kinds of conservatism. And what I'm talking about when I call myself conservative is a general approach to government. It's not a litmus test, check-box thing. It is, What do you think the appropriate role of government is in society? The way I look at this job is, You want me to do X? Well, is the private sector doing X with any kind of success? Because if they are, I'd rather have them do it than have us do it.

I want people to walk away every time they see me and say, That guy's really appreciative that we gave him a chance to do this job.

I don't answer hypothetical questions as a general rule. They keep asking them, though.

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