There are only moments of happiness - from contentment to ecstacy.

The International Control Commission isn't doing anything, it's never done anything. What good does it do to be on it or not? Before opening the embassy in Hanoi, I gave it a lot of thought, but it wasn't really a painful decision. American policy in Vietnam is what it is, in Saigon the situation is anything but normal, and I'm happy to have done what I did.

I don't know how to put on an act; I always show myself for what I am, in whatever mood I'm in.

It was the very fact that no one ever imposed anything on me or tried to impose himself on the others.

No one ever indoctrinated me.

At a certain point the family moved to Jaipur, where no woman could avoid the doli or purdah. They kept her in the house from morning to night, either cooking or doing nothing. [My mother] hated doing nothing, she hated to cook. So she became pale and ill, and far from being concerned about her health, my grandfather said, 'Who's going to marry her now?' So my grandmother waited for my grandfather to go out, and then she dressed my mother as a man and let her go out riding with her brothers.

My father was a statesman, I'm a political woman. My father was a saint. I'm not.