Growing up in politics I know that women decide all elections because we do all the work.

In the melting pot that is America inclusive trumps exclusive. Whether it's single women young adults or minorities alienating the rapidly growing voting blocs is not smart politics.

When I first started working in politics as a junior aide on Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign it never occurred to me that I would one day work in the White House. There were plenty of women among the volunteers who stuffed envelopes and walked precincts. But there were fewer and fewer on each successive level of influence and access.

It isn't fate but fecklessness that has shoved Sarah Palin to the sidelines of national politics. The real tragedy is that she's taken a lot of other serious Republican women with her.

As women have played an increasingly important role in politics there is no question that they've brought a different perspective focusing attention on a broader set of issues and building alliances with other women.

In politics women type the letters lick the stamps distribute the pamphlets and get out the vote. Men get elected.

At present our country needs women's idealism and determination perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.

I'm always rather nervous about how you talk about women who are active in politics whether they want to be talked about as women or as politicians.

They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.

Women who are inclined to write poetry at all are inspired by being mad at something.

Reading poetry gives me a sense of calm well-being and love for humanity - the same stuff more flexible women get from yoga.

I'm perfectly happy when I look out at an audience and it's all women. I always think it's kind of odd but then more women than men I think read and write poetry.

Because in fact women feminists do read my poetry and they read it often with the power of their political interpretation. I don't care that's what poetry is supposed to do.

It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated unlike poetry which is more equal.

Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. The feminine ones are not idealistic and the idealistic not feminine.

Women do not have as great a need for poetry because their own essence is poetry.

On Memorial Day I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets who started preaching peace men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.

It is by such means as the prize offered by your Committee that the attention of the world will be focused and that men and women will be inspired to greater efforts in the interest of peace.

I created the Women's Federation for World Peace in order to restore all that woman originally lost. You American women don't need a man in the position of grandfather parents husband elder or younger brother. You only need the true Adam.

Men and women who know the brutal reality of war who know that war strips people of their very humanity must unite in a new global partnership for peace.

Are some women and children going to die? Yeah. But it's doing the right thing. You got money you sit around talking about peace. People who don't have money need some help.

The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high - and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity fully fledged mutual acceptance full-blown mutual flourishing and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction personal adoration and moral admiration that is hard to find.

I can promise you that women working together - linked informed and educated - can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.

Patience makes a women beautiful in middle age.