I never worked on anything so hard in my life [like my book 'Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos'], including the Bar exam. The only other thing I could compare it to is having four babies by age 24. That was hard.

I really, really, loved being an elected official. But I also love what I'm doing now. I thrive when I can fight for people and I'm doing it now as a lawyer.

I would suggest that people do need to trust someone, to think they care about you. I believe that in my heart.

My original book [Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos] was 1,700 pages. The first editor brought it down to 700; there was a lot that didn't make it in. But at last it's finished. I had a hard time signing off on it. And I was worried about it hurting anyone I loved even indirectly. I sat in my room afterwards for two hours wondering what I had done. I wondered about it being judged and if people would understand.

[After her 18-day disappearance in 1974:] I love my husband very, very much, but he didn't ask me when he ran for mayor and he didn't consult me about running for governor. It would be nice to be asked. ... You know, I've been my mother's daughter, my father's daughter, the wife of my husband, the mother of my six children, and grandmother to my eleven grandchildren, but I have never been me. But I am now because I went away. I am a changed woman.

I just think women should support women.

In the Senate race I went for some candidate endorsement meetings and three people there asked me: Do you go to a therapist? Because they could not believe that with the beating I took in the mayor's race I could still come in there cracking jokes and talking about the issues!