Time magazine taps Giuliani as Person of 2001

NEW YORK -- Heralded for his steadfast response to a grief-torn city after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

"I was stunned, a little," Giuliani said at a news conference Sunday. "It was really strange. It's hard to think of yourself that way."

The magazine's editors chose Giuliani "for having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him."

"I got all the credit resting on the shoulders of these people that have had one of the most heroic three months I think any people have ever had," Giuliani said. The award's criteria, set by Time founder Henry Luce, is "The person or persons who most affected the news of our lives, for good or ill, this year."