In terms of being a professional, I want to be professional with everyone.

When I was a graduate student, I actually took a course in development economics and I thought it was the most boring thing in the world.

To insist that no one can support the interests of the aam aadmi without being one himself is like saying that no man can support women's rights.

So, I went to Harvard and I got exposed to American work habits. I didn't even realise for a while that I was behind. I kind of had the illusion that I was understanding things. But people worked so hard and the thing I learnt first in America was that people work incredibly hard.

The minute you step into a job where you have to be at all tough and assertive, that's when the mischief happens. And you're not allowed to be assertive and feminine.

When I get up and work out, I'm working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It's just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

The subsidy for employer-sponsored coverage has tethered health care to employment in a way that virtually no economist endorses.

I think I can get away, sometimes, with walking in the streets and not getting noticed. I like that. I want my work to get noticed, not me. And it's slowly getting there, which is good.