Women are more than 50% of almost every country in the world. Countries rob themselves of the resources of women if they keep them as property. It isn't that women can't find work. It's just that women don't get paid for their work and are not recognized properly. It's something that has to be on the international agenda all the time.

I spent my life studying communism and Soviet systems.

You think that the heads of state only have serious conversations, but they actually often begin really with the weather or, 'I really like your tie.'

I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.

The other thing that happened was that we have a tendency to project our own weaknesses onto another woman. I don't think men do that particularly.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

I think the personal relationships I established mattered in terms of what I was able to get done. And I did bring women's issues to the center of our foreign policy.