I'm not interested in one label or the other - I'm only interested in solving certain problems, in getting where I want to go.

Let's not forget that in India the symbol of strength is a woman; the goddess Shakti.

You must also understand us - always undervalued, underestimated, not believed. Even when we believed, you didn't believe us. You said, 'How is it possible to fight without violence?' But without violence we obtained freedom.

Even I, when I was a student in London, often wore Western clothes, and yet I'm the most Indian Indian I know.

I said, I'll put on weight. And I started having massages, taking cod-liver oil, and eating twice as much. But I didn't even gain an ounce. I'd made up my mind that on the day the engagement was announced I'd be fatter, and I didn't gain an ounce. Then I went to Mussoorie, which is a health resort, and I ignored the doctors' instructions; I invented my own regime and gained weight. Just the opposite of what I'd like now. Now I have the problem of keeping slim. Still I manage. I don't know if you realize I'm a determined woman.

Nothing can convince me that people are at one with their work unless they're joyous about it.

How can anybody who is the head of a nation afford not to be a prag-matist?