Quotes By Laura Bush

Any first lady can do whatever they want to do. In this country, people expect them to work on whatever they want or to have a career of their own.

I mean, we are facing so many very, very important issues and those are the issues that you heard talked about last night from the Republican convention, and that you'll hear my husband talk about. And those are the really important issues facing our country right now.

I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school.

No one likes to be criticized.

I like politics. I like traveling in the United States.

You know, there are a lot of would-be governors of Texas sitting around today who never took the opportunity to get into a race when the time was right.

I'm not the one who was elected. I would never do anything to undermine my husband's point of view.

It's not easy to have the job of president. It's not easy to run for it. And it's not a job for the feint of heart.

They're great girls. They're very funny, they're very smart, they're fun to be with. They're very lively, as I think people can tell. And you know, they're very confident girls.

I also know that there are a lot of people around the United States who want my husband to win and who are for him and who support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I feel good about those people, too.

In fact, I have the privilege of traveling around our country and meeting people all over the country who are making a huge difference in the lives of their neighbors and themselves. That's what I'm really fortunate to be able to do.

But you know, it's not easy when your husband runs for president. I mean, it's not easy for me. I'm sure it's not easy for her. There's a lot of scrutiny on families that isn't always wanted.

Maybe it is the media that has us divided.

Politics is a people business. I like people.

Though my plans at the moment are vague, I can assure you that I'll never run for the Senate in New York.

The power of a book lies in its power to turn a solitary act into a shared vision. As long as we have books, we are not alone.

Every child in American should have access to a well-stocked school library.

If I'm just at the White House, I have meetings in my office, I sign letters, I plan different things. Late in the afternoon, I'll quit working and wait for my husband to get home.

I don't like that, because there are a lot of people whose works I admire as actors or actresses, or musicians. And you know, I've been a big fan of different musicians or actors.

A love of books, of holding a book, turning its pages, looking at its pictures, and living its fascinating stories goes hand-in-hand with a love of learning.

I mean, it's fun for us to talk about issues. You know, there's no one issue we spend a lot of time on probably, because he gets to do that all day with somebody else who's a lot more expert at issues than I am.

We can overcome evil with greater good.

Well, we've faced very difficult decisions and challenges in our country, every one of us have, as we - since September 11th, as we fought the war on terror, all of those decisions that the President had to make to put young men and women in harm's way.

When we look around the world today, when we see in Afghanistan that 10 million people have registered to vote in their upcoming elections, including 40 percent of those people are women, that's just unbelievable.

But we talk about issues, we talk about people, we talk about personalities. George is a very good reader of people, and he's very perceptive about people, and you know, that's fine.

We always get up about 5:30, and George gets up and goes in and gets the coffee and brings it to me, and that's been our ritual since we got married. And we read the newspapers in bed and drink coffee for about an hour probably, read our briefing papers.

I don't really feel like I have to have a debate with my husband over issues.

I mean, the part you don't like, I mean, that's the only part. That's the part no one likes, and that is the criticisms, and the unfair criticisms, I might add, of my husband. But that's also just a fact of life in politics.

Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.

I would never do anything to undermine my husband's point of view.