The day you realize you're a grownup is the day you realize that you have to do something. When we're kids, we don't have to do anything. Then all of a sudden you realize, if I want this to be better, I've got to do something.
Even though the press at times made me completely crazy as they followed me around the hall, and asked tough questions over and over again - now believe me, every politician feels this way - it is a necessary part of our life, and we must have a press that isn't cowed and won't be afraid of ratings if they get put to the back of the room at a press conference.
If it's racist, it's racist. If it's anti-Semitic, it's anti-Semitic. If it's anti-women, it's anti-women. If it's anti-immigrant, it's anti-immigrant, and we need to really strengthen our language, so that it is clear and not mushy.
The American people as a whole are really pretty moderate. They're not, as a whole, conservative or liberal. The right wing is marching the Republican Party off a cliff.
Nothing is alarmist with Donald Trump because you don't really know what he's going to do.
The Democratic Party has awakened. We've not been awake since 9/11, in many ways. We had moments, sporadically, where we woke up. But I think we were so hit by 9/11, as the whole country was, that we didn't get our legs back. It took a while. Now the Democratic Party is back. I've never seen it as united. Sure, we have a ways to go. We have a lot of ground to cover.
I've always thought of myself as a catalyst. Look, it's not without its perils. Ann Coulter called me "learning disabled." The things people write about me.
I've faced the grief, I've faced the anger, and I'm ready to keep up the fight because America is worth fighting for.
You take what you've learned, you pass it down, and you keep working.
It's good I was born in Brooklyn. You learn how to take care of yourself.
I think America should amass a strategy for success, and set out the milestones. We need to help the Iraqis get their democracy up and running, we've got to help them train their military and police and security people, and we've got to start moving out.
In America, the system itself of democracy is being threatened.
Each issue has to be looked at as to whether or not it threatens a woman's health or her life, and if it does, you can't support it. And if she just wants to have her legal right to an abortion, she should be able to do it.
There's an effort on the part of many people to attack women's rights, women's health, and the ability to control our own lives. No doubt about it. And it is not a majority of the country, in any way, shape, or form. I know on the contraceptive issue, 70 percent of the country agrees with me. Will that stop my opponents? No. Because they are so radical. They chip away and chip away.
Who knows when Donald Trump will have a press conference? Maybe he's just going to stay in Trump Tower and issue tweets - you know, gold-plated tweets to the American people. It's scary.
The press is critical at this time, and if you look at history, this is so critical.
If something is opinion, put it in the opinion section: Don't put it in the facts section.
I think being prepared for anything is the way to go.
I don't know how long I'm going to live, but I hope my seeds are pretty good.
I can't predict if I will see a woman president, but I think I may well because, again, Hillary Clinton got more votes probably than any other Democratic candidate ever, except for Obama. But she got more votes than Trump and she got more votes than Richard Nixon got when he won the election, more votes than John Kennedy got when he won.
I am saying there are women in the Senate, there are women in governorships, there are women in statewide office, there are women in the House, and I do think we can't ignore the fact that we have had the first woman ever win a nomination of a major party and the first woman ever winning the popular vote. So I think the table is set for a woman in the near future. I really do.
My understanding of the Electoral College is that they have the right to vote for who they want. So they should vote their conscience, and if their conscience leads them that way, they should follow their conscience.
I've been there for so many crossroads in American history. My whole political life spans the birth of the environmental movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, putting an end to unjust wars, and so and so.
Let me tell you, life is interesting regardless of when you are in the fight.
I'm not leaving the fight just because I decided not to run. I'm going to expand my political action committee and volunteer for it. I'm going to do lots of other things where I will have a voice. So I'm not leaving the fight.
