There's Madeleine, and then there's 'Madeleine Albright'. And I sometimes kind of think, who is this person? Once you become 'Madeleine Albright' it doesn't go away.
I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.
Life is grim, and we don't have to be grim all the time.
I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.
I know that war is very cruel and that life is harder when you aren't able to live in the place you called home.
Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.
What a blast it is to be here with Michael Moore.
I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women's issues to the center of our foreign policy.
I think that we had a different view of what the 21st century could be like, with much more of a sense, from our perspective, of trying to have an interdependent world: looking at solving regional conflicts, having strength in alliances, operating within some kind of a sense that we were part of the international community and not outside of it.
It's important that we invest in America - literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can't let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.
And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.
I saw what happened when a dictator was allowed to take over a piece of a country and the country went down the tubes. And I saw the opposite during the war when America joined the fight.
I get up every morning and I'm grateful for everything that has happened. I go through my list about being grateful for my children and grandchildren, and for the really remarkable life that I have been able to have.
I do think that one needs to have respect for people who are older. And I really do love the idea that one can respect generations.
Really, I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady, you know, 'tough this and tough that.' Then there is this business about 'gooey.' The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.
As strong as the United States is, we can't deal with terrorism alone.
I have certain issues. I support women candidates, but I cannot support a woman that I don't believe in. I would prefer to vote for a man who believes in choice than a woman who is pro-life. We have to be able to make distinctions and not look as though we are not feminist enough if we don't support every woman. We need to have that kind of a choice.
I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.
What distinguishes Americans from many people in the world is our kind of endemic optimism.
I have been in meetings where a head of state will say, 'I like your tie,' to a man... or, 'I like your country because the weather's good,' or whatever. So for me, the pins in some ways were openers.
People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.
NATO has been a thread throughout my life.
My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.
My mind-set is Munich. Most of my generation's is Vietnam.
No matter how hard we might wish, we will not be able to transform China's behavior overnight.
