In my day you didn't speak until spoken to.

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.

Russia is a place of great culture. If you've read Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov...the culture of the great Russian literature is amazing. The human narrative you get out of "War and Peace" is universal.

Like Hillary Clinton before her, Mrs. Obama has always been a working woman. She is a lawyer turned hospital administrator turned political right hand. It is a unique resume.

I personally go to the airport looking like a homeless person, because I think people will leave me alone. But I dress myself with my luggage - all my luggage matches.

Mrs. Obama has a hug - a sincere and friendly embrace - that has become familiar to countless supporters from coast to coast. And when she talks to you, she focuses all her calm attention on your face.

When I have interns, I always say, 'Handwritten thank-you notes can make a difference.' People remember that - not an e-mail, a handwritten note in an envelope.