I am a committed observer. I like staying in the background and seeing what's going on.

Being First Lady is playing supporting act. I am not seeking notoriety and I am not seeking to grab the limelight.

My feeling is that maintaining financial independence is also a healthy way to keep my feet on the ground.

In France, a first lady has no status, and therefore she isn't supposed to do anything else.

I built my entire life on the idea of independence.

I have never worn dresses by grands couturiers.

My perception of life is not to ask Francois Hollande, who isn't the father of my children, to support me financially.

I've shared the fate of many working mothers; I felt guilty like them.

I will count to 10 before tweeting.

I know politics; I know the media.

I am, and remain, passionate about news.

Reading brings power to the mind and power brings freedom to the mind. Though you ought to read, read what is noble and worthy of not just your time, but your lifetime!

I was in awe of the mystery of human compassion and the inability of love to make the distance between us any more bearable.

The chicken came first - God would look silly sitting on an egg.

It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order.

The foolish rush to end their lives. Only the steadfast soul survives.

The one certainty in tiger tracks is: follow them long enough and you will eventually arrive at a tiger, unless the tiger arrives at you first.

There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.

Education is the single-most important civil rights issue that we face today.

If we don't want the companies to cheat on us, we shouldn't be cheating on them.

Reading-not occasionally, not only on vacation but everyday-gives me nourishment and enlarges my life in mysterious and essential ways.