I wanted young women to know that I was very lucky that I worked for people who literally let me be me. If I had ever been anyone other than me, I would have come off as a fake, a phony, a fraud, and never would have gotten where I ultimately ended up. You can be yourself and be in politics, and they should know that. That was kind of why I wanted to do it - because I didn't see any freaks in politics like me.

I didn't have a ton of role models back in 1998. So, when I was looking to get in, it was really just looking up at all the men who were out there. When you're not seeing women - when you're breaking into anything - it's like, "Well, this is what the men do and how they act, so we're going to just emulate that behavior."

I think the best conversation to have been able to eavesdrop on was the one the minute after it was called that Trump would be the next president of the Unites States. Because by all indications, it does not seem anybody thought they were going to win. That is the moment I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. Or, like, in the microwave, whatever.

Because as much as the world loves you one minute, it can be way down on you the next.

I'd love to say "Donald Trump is just sexist." And I do believe he's sexist, but I also believe that he also treats anyone who is his opponent in a very insane and disrespectful way.

I think that if you look at all of the books that have ever been written about people working in the White House, they're sort of the opposite of my book. And I think that so many people want to write a book that sort of memorializes their place in history. And I wanted to write something for all of the women who are like me. I grew up in upstate New York, I graduated high school with 70 other people and didn't ever know that anything like this would have really been an option for me. So I wanted other young women — and men — to know that just being you is plenty.

When I had been dating my husband for a while, the president Obama said to me, "When is he going to put a ring on it?" And I was like, "Oh, come on. We are so busy. We don't need to think about that." He said, "He needs to put a ring on it because you're worth it." And the thing is, I'm not even kidding you, it was about a week or two later that we got engaged.