Michelle Obama in Her Own Words Read online

Barack and I—as partners, as friends, and as lovers—we accessorize each other in many ways. The best thing I love having on me is Barack on my arm and vice versa, whether it’s having him standing there smiling at me, or watching him mesmerize a crowd or talk to some seniors in a senior center.

  Ebony, September 2008

  There was an important period of growth in our marriage. He was in the state senate, we had small kids, and it was hard. I was struggling with figuring out how I was going to make it work for me. This was the epiphany. I am sitting there with a new baby, angry, tired, and out of shape. The baby is up for that 4 o’clock feeding. And my husband is lying there, sleeping. That’s when it struck [me] that if I wasn’t there, he would eventually have to wake up [and take care of the girls.] It worked. I would get home from the gym, and the girls would be up and fed. That was something I had to do for me.

  O, The Oprah Magazine, November 2007

  As individual professionals, you talk about your fears, you talk about your challenges, and you get feedback, and then you go off and make decisions based on what you think is best.

  USA Today, May 11, 2007

  Barack and I don’t have interesting lives, never did. We’re basically family people. When we go on a date, it’s either dinner or a movie because we can’t stay awake for both.

  Chicago Sun-Times, July 1, 2008

  ON THE MEDIA

  This is what I haven’t learned how to do. It’s like I can’t think out loud. I can’t sort of meander through because then somebody takes a clip of the first part of the thought and twists it. What I said in the interview is, like, yeah, you know, I would want her [Hillary Clinton] to support [Barack]. I would. So I couldn’t see not being enthusiastically supportive of whoever comes out of this. But that part of the interview didn’t get played.

  Newsweek, February 25, 2008

  I’ve got to be careful not to be the story, because then it becomes a distraction to the broader issues.

  Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2008

  ON MEN

  What I notice about men, all men, is that their order is me, my family, God is in there somewhere, but me is first. And for women, me is fourth, and that’s not healthy.

  Vanity Fair, December 2007

  I think men are socialized differently. Men know how to prioritize themselves.

  Naperville Sun (IL), October 18, 2004

  ON MICHELLE AS ROCK STAR

  I would be speaking every night of the week as the senator’s wife if I tried to meet a fraction of the requests, but I don’t because I just can’t. I’m the parent, so when it comes to potlucks and play dates and pickups and keeping the kids on cue, that’s generally me. The requests haven’t died down. It’s national. Sometimes I’m amazed. It’s like, are you sure you want me?

  Chicago Tribune, December 25, 2005

  I’d get teased in my family if Barack or I started acting differently just because he’s a senator. I have a big brother who would talk about us like dogs.

  Ebony, March 2006

  I am constantly trying to make sure that I am making him proud—what would my father think of the choices that I’ve made, how I’ve lived my life, what careers I chose, what man I married. That’s the voice in my head that keeps me whole and keeps me grounded and keeps me the girl from the South Side of Chicago, no matter how many cameras are in the room, how many autographs people want, how big we get.

  Washington Post, November 28, 2007

  ON THE MILITARY

  We have to remember that when our troops go to war, our families go to war. We can do [our troops] a greater service if we can ensure that while those folks are fighting on behalf of our country, that their houses aren’t being foreclosed on, that they have health care, that their kids have good schools to go to. And that when they come back, maybe they can finish their own education, or send their kids to college.

  Good Housekeeping, November 2008

  ON HER MOTHER

  She is my salvation and not just because she is there, but because she is there in a positive way. I know that in addition to all the extra love and attention, she is instilling the discipline and the rules. She cheats a little bit as grandmas do, but the baseline in terms of how we as a family believe in instilling character and our values, I know that that’s the same across the board.

  Ebony, September 2008

  My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

  One Nation speech, Democratic National Convention,

  August 25, 2008

  My mom does anything for us and her grandkids. All they have to do is look at her with sad eyes and she’s done for. It’s like, You’re going to say no? You’re going to tell your grandkids, “No, I’m going to stay in Chicago [instead of moving to Washington]?”

  Newsweek, November 5, 2008

  There’s nothing like your mom. I leave assured that there’s somebody there that deeply loves my girls, and understands the values that we’re trying to impart. So even if she lets them stay up a little bit later than I might, or might let them not finish their vegetables every night, you know, there’s still a certain expectation of who she wants them to be.

  MSNBC, November 13, 2007

  ON MOVING TO WASHINGTON

  What will the girls need? Are they going to transition easily to the White House and this public life and a new school and a new city? I’m going to be making sure that they have their feet on the ground.

  Newsweek, February 25, 2008

  ON MUSIC

  I’m loving Robin Thicke right now. Jill Scott. India.Arie. Love, love, love old school Lauryn Hill. I love good women who can sing, you know?

  Glamour, September 2007

  Stevie Wonder is my favorite person in the whole world and my favorite musician.

  Ebony, March 2006

  I have a pretty eclectic mix of everything, from Beyoncé to Stevie Wonder. He’s my favorite artist of all time, so I probably have every song he’s ever recorded. But if I hear something I like somewhere, I’ll add it. I just heard this CD by Anthony David, who’s an R&B guy—I put him on [my iPod.]. I also have some old Mariah Carey; the girls have reintroduced me to some of her older stuff. So I have a good mix: some pop, some R&B, some jazz.

  Marie Claire, October 2008

  ON OBAMA GIRL AND BARACK’S FEMALE GROUPIES

  First of all, I can’t control someone else’s behavior. I never worry about things I can’t affect, and with fidelity, that is between Barack and me.

  Ebony, March 2006

  I think my husband’s cute. So, you know, more power to the people who think he’s cute as well.

  Associated Press (AP), July 20, 2007

  Barack is like Mr. GQ all of a sudden. He’s got five white shirts and three black suits, and all of a sudden, he’s best-dressed.

  Associated Press (AP), July 20, 2007

  ON OPRAH

  I adore Oprah. She’s just a great intellect. What she’s done is that she has a broad reach. Now she can’t—she doesn’t convince people. I think Americans are smart enough to want to make their own decisions. But what Oprah has offered [Barack] is access to a broad base of her supporters. And what that’s given Barack the opportunity to do is to just try to speak to them. So she’s opened up more doors, but he’s had to walk through them.

  Larry King Live, February 11, 2008

  ON HER PARENTS

  People like my parents were happy they could get up and go to work.

  Campaign speech, October 22, 2008

  My parents taught me about confidence from within. Everything flows from that.

  x People, November 24, 2008

  Growing up, my parents worked to instill a sense of pride and self-confidence in me and my brother. They taught us to work hard, pursue our dreams, and not worry about things that are beyond our control.

  Marie Claire, October 2008


  We had very hardworking parents. They didn’t go to college, but they believed in the importance of education; they were staunch supporters of us, so we always had two parents telling us how wonderful we were.

  U.S. News & World Report, February 1, 2008

  ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

  Seeing a parent with a disability [Michelle’s father had MS] moving through the world and living life as if that disability didn’t matter always made us think, What do we have to complain about? We wake up, we bound out of bed, we are healthy, we’re happy, and our father is struggling to get out of bed. But he never missed a day of work, never talked about being sick. So it made it hard to wake up and say, “I don’t want to go to school.”

  Reader’s Digest, October 2008

  ON HER PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY

  When you’re given the gift of advocacy, you don’t sell it to the highest bidder.

  University Wire (UWire), April 7, 2008

  I am still surprised that there are people who make decisions because they’re afraid of what might not work.

  Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2008

  My mother raised us not to make decisions on what could go wrong or we’d never go forward.

  Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2008

  Growing up, my mother always taught me to work hard to achieve my dreams and to never let anyone tell me that I couldn’t do something. It’s definitely the most valuable lesson I’ve learned.

  Momlogic.com, July 31, 2008

  The challenge for us is to ask, “What are we ready for?” This one is on us—see, we like to talk about change, but we don’t really like change. We want easy change, we want change that will make us feel comfortable, but that’s not how change happens; it’s not something that’s just going to come to you passively.

  Speech, Georgetown, S.C., January 14, 2008

  We are only as strong as the weakest among us.

  Lewiston Sun-Journal (ME), December 13, 2007

  I try to gravitate to the things that I personally am dealing with because then I can deal with them honestly and passionately, and hopefully be effective because I can relate.

  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 3, 2008

  Our story is the great American story of success and pulling yourself up and making lemonade out of lemons.

  All Things Considered, NPR, August 25, 2008

  I’ve got my community, family, neighbors, girlfriends, my parents, people who have known us forever. And it’s easier to stay grounded if the people you are surrounding yourself with really know you. You can’t get too big if your mother’s looking at you thinking, I know who you are.

  Essence, September 2007

  My piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me.

  One Nation speech, Democratic National Convention,

  August 25, 2008

  In America, we spend more time talking about what can’t get done, what is impossible, and we pass that on to our children. We’re creating a generation of doubters and kids that are timid. I don’t want that for my girls.

  ABC News, January 24, 2008

  Power concedes nothing without a struggle.

  Washington Post, February 2, 2008

  ON HER PERSONAL TIME

  I don’t have time to watch TV. By the time I get through I’m going to hit the pillows so hard. And even when I try to watch TV, I can’t keep my eyes open for one minute. And when Barack is watching TV, he’s watching sports.

  Larry King Live, October 8, 2008

  ON POLITICS

  Sometimes politics is a waste of time.

  Chicago Sun-Times, September 19, 2004

  Politics is a game, and it’s all about mischaracterization. I don’t let the game of politics influence what I say and who I will become, because in that way, this process would eat you up and spit you out, and then you look up and you won’t know who you are. Barack and I made a promise to ourselves that in the end of this, no matter what the outcome, when we looked at each other in the eye, we would still be able to recognize one another. And I still recognize him.

  All Things Considered, NPR, August 25, 2008

  Politics is a patience game. You can’t do this unless you have patience.

  Newhouse News Service (NNS), August 10, 2008

  Sometimes our politics uses division as a tool and a crutch. We think we can mend it all up after all the dirt has been thrown, but we can’t.

  Washington Post, February 2, 2008

  What I like least is the gamesmanship of politics. I don’t watch the debates. I don’t mind being in tense situations; I just don’t like watching folks in them. I never liked watching my brother’s basketball games, either.

  Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2008

  I hate politics. This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever been involved whatsoever.

  Campaign speech, Akron, Ohio, October 24, 2008

  Barack Obama is going to fall and fall hard because he’s going to have to make some decisions that people will not agree with. That’s the nature of politics.

  Chicago Tribune, December 25, 2005

  Politics is stressful on the life of a family. You just have to keep working and try to prevent politics from drowning out the rest of your life.

  Daily Princetonian, December 7, 2005

  At some point along the way, you have to make sure that people are clear about who you are and the positions that you’ve taken because, you know, politics is as much about trying to blur the lines between candidates as it is getting to the issues.

  Tell Me More, NPR, January 25, 2008

  We approach politics in a lot of different ways. Barack has been told in every race that he’s ever run that he shouldn’t do it, he couldn’t raise the money, that his name was too funny, his background too exotic. We’ve heard that. That’s why this, this stuff now, is like, hey, here we go again, but in every instance his view, our view, has been that if you tell people the truth you can connect with people right here and now. If you can break through the noise, then people recognize the truth, that honesty does win out.

  MSNBC, November 13, 2007

  As a country we always wonder whether politics changes people, and one of the things we’ve desperately tried to do is not to allow our political lives to change who we are fundamentally.

  MSNBC, November 13, 2007

  There is something vicious and cynical going on and I think that most Americans are tired of it. I am talking about the state of politics and the tone of debate in this country. I think people have grown weary of this approach.

  London Sunday Telegraph, December 23, 2007

  I didn’t come to politics with a lot of faith in the process. I didn’t believe that politics was structured in a way that could solve real problems for people, so you can imagine how I felt when Barack approached me to run for state senate, I said, “I married you because you’re cute and you’re smart, but this is the dumbest thing you could have ever asked me to do.” Fortunately for all of us Barack wasn’t as cynical as I was. He knew that the American people knew better and wanted better.

  University Wire (UWire), October 26, 2004

  I’ve been very cynical and reluctant about politics. You know, politics is a nasty business, and you don’t hold out hope that fairness will win, that truth and justice carry the day. You think that it’s a business. And there was that part of me that said, Do we want to put ourselves out for a system that I’m not sure about?

  All Things Considered, NPR, July 9, 2007

  Like most people, my view about politics had been that politics is for dirty, nasty people who aren’t trying to do much in the world.

  Associated Press (AP), March 1, 2007

  Politics is politics. And I think it’s a competitive endeavor. And, you know, it’s rough and tumble.

  Larry King Live, February 11, 2008

  ON THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

  I hate fund-raising. Haaaaate it. Hate, hate it.

  N
ewsweek, February 25, 2008

  At the start of this, I said to him, “Look, baby, you can do a lot of things.” He believes he can do a whole lot. If he works hard, he can change the world.

  New York Times, October 28, 2008

  When he announced on that cold, freezing cold day in Springfield, Illinois, in February, a year and a half ago, he stood up and he said this race never will be, never should be about him.