I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

I really didn't want to have my name on the center, because it just seemed like it was too much of a personal thing.

A liberated woman is one who feels confident in herself, and is happy in what she is doing. She is a person who has a sense of self-it all comes down to a freedom of choice.

I'll never forget the day that I was told I would have to have a mastectomy. My reaction to the words was total denial.

I think it wasn't so much that the White House altered me in any essential way as that I found the resources with which to respond to a series of challenges. You never know what you can do until you have to do it. In the beginning, it was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time.

When other women have this same operation, it doesn't make any headlines. But the fact that I was the wife of the President put it in headlines and brought before the public this particular experience I was going through. It made a lot of women realize that it could happen to them. I'm sure I've saved at least one person maybe more.

Friends aren't any more important than breath or blood to a high school senior.