A successful marriage is a decision. You decide whether it's going to work, and then you turn around and you've been married 45 years.

On February 17th, Four weeks from [Barack Obama's] inauguration, he signed a bill which saved or created 4 million jobs.

If you're talking about competing with countries in the industrialized, developed world, they don't have healthcare costs. Their societies have that as a priority. Here in America, we won't have the same kind of healthcare availability because it's still a private sector initiative. But that's O.K. because it's facilitated to be made more affordable in a public way.

Jobs mean freedom for workers to support their families.

When President [Barack] Obama was sworn in on the steps of Capitol, he asked for swift, bold action now for jobs and education for the 21st Century, a list, an agenda. One week and one day from that swearing in, the House passed the ARRA, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

My daughter Alexandra once told me, "Mother, you're a pioneer. Now, hardly anybody cooks, but you were one of the first to stop." After 20 years of cooking, I started to appreciate the value of other people's work. So I would, say, go get a duck in Chinatown. I always had the salad and set the table, but I didn't have to clean the pots.

People say to me all the time, "Oh, you do such a good job unifying the House Democrats." I say, "I don't. Our values unify us. We are unified with our commitment to America's working families about job creation, about budget policies that invest in the future, good-paying jobs."