The secret to a happy marriage is patience and honesty. I really mean that. You have to be patient, you have to be open, and you also have to be available for criticism, too.

I brought home a baby without telling [husband John McCain], and he not only took it in stride but loved it, immediately embracing Bridget, who shares John's very dry sense of humor, so she and her dad do pretty well together. If I hadn't taken Bridget out, I think she would have become a prostitute or worse, died.

BlackBerrys are a wonderful tool. I'm very tenacious about keeping up with my kids, as they are with me.

As a mother, I - like everyone else - have to fill my gas tank in my car. I have to feed my family. I have to be able to make sure that I can keep a roof over their heads and, with things escalating the way they are, it's very difficult. People are losing their homes.

In everything I do, my children come first, and my husband. I just think it's so important to maintain family stability.

If you really want to see change, and have change, you're going to have to get involved.

I think Americans are good-hearted, open-minded people and race doesn't enter into this - at all.