NICOLLE WALLACE

I think politics is like an X-ray machine: Everything is found out eventually.

I never really thought that anyone thought there was just one kind of Republican woman.

I worked for Sarah Palin. I have the political staffer version of P.T.S.D., so whenever I hear that she's breaking her silence, my heart stops.

There are probably many, many people who are better writers than me.

I am not someone who throws around the word 'self-esteem.' It is a fictional description.

A lot of newsrooms have thought very carefully about how they cover race. I don't think the same conversations have gone on regarding women.

My husband saw me go through the 2008 campaign cycle. We did it together for Sarah Palin and John McCain. It ended disastrously, and afterward I really wanted to do something different, so I started writing novels, and I imagined a fictional female president in my head.

I was very much inspired by the things that I'd seen and done in politics, but I was also desperate for a complete departure from the reality of my political experience. 'It's Classified' and my previous book 'Eighteen Acres' are both works of fiction, but if they do seem realistic, it's by design.

The two pillars of winning the presidency are being a strong leader and being someone who understands us and our problems.

During the day, I don't read too much of the blog traffic, but then at night, I read transcripts of all of the network packages, and then I watch the wires and some of the political blogs.

Republicans have said much worse things about me than any Democrat ever has.

I'm not a fan of identity politics.

Everybody wants to do 'The View.' It's this iconic show. When I worked at the White House, I used to watch the beginning to see what they were talking about. If a political topic was on their radar, I used it as ammunition with the president or the White House staff.

Campaigns bring out the warriors in everybody.

I wasn't the only one that saw Sarah Palin vacillate between glorious highs on the campaign trail - and, you know, while she was speaking and at the convention - to really troubling lows when she seemed stumped in interviews.

People always related to President Bush, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War, his numbers collapsed because people didn't feel like he handled those properly. Obama is the inverse. He was elected because he was an extraordinary guy, but the fact that he isn't ordinary has turned out to be politically damaging.

I love Carly Fiorina's fire; she's feisty as heck. She really seems to fearlessly take the fight right to the doorstep of the Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

The idea of a mentally ill vice president who suffers in complete isolation was obviously sparked by the behaviors I witnessed by Sarah Palin. What if somebody who was ill-equipped for the office were to ascend to the presidency or vice presidency? What would they do? How long would it take for people to figure it out?

I don't think that a woman in politics exists or thrives on her own.

It would be absurd for me to diagnose Sarah Palin with a sprained ankle, let alone any sort of mental illness.

I didn't have a special secret about Sarah Palin. I just had a feeling and some concerns. Her blank stares and her lashing out in some interviews, I think, gave voters pause about her, too.

If you're dating the quarterback and then you go out with the hockey player, you just go to the hockey games. I don't think I'll still go to the football games.

A life in politics is for people who know themselves and know where their own line is between loyalty and honesty.

Sometimes with the Palins, it's exactly what it looks like.

I'm a huge fan of a Hillary Clinton candidacy. I think Hillary will be an incredibly strong candidate, and hopefully it will inspire my party to put up someone great.