I wasn't a normal professor. I had worked in government. I hadn't written nine zillion books. I was a hands-on professor.

What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

I had more problems with the men in our own government, and not because they were male chauvinistic pigs but because they had known me for so long. I might have been a carpool mother and a friend of their wife, and so they'd been to my house for dinner and things like and they thought 'how did she get to be secretary of state when I should be secretary of state?' So that was more of a problem.

I think the hardest part [is] the priorities. There are an awful lot of things to do [being Secretary of State].

If we have to use force, it is because we are America.

Most of the time I spend when I get up in the morning is trying to figure out what is going to happen.