Marlin Fitzwater Quotes

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.

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.

Political spouses don't announce that they're staying, only that they're leaving. And that I have no announcements to make here tonight, at this time, with you, on this occasion.

No White House staff person wants to conflict with the First Lady who goes home and has the ear of the President all night.

I prepared myself for my marriage to Pierre Trudeau, but I didn't prepare myself for marriage to the prime minister.

My father was a public figure all my life, and so the presidency was an extension of that. I guess you get used to it, though you can stand back occasionally and think, 'Boy, this is really weird!'

My job is being 'Mrs. Ronald Reagan.'

Because of who my husband is, and our life, and also he is number one in the polls - well, you take that all together, and people are very curious about me. I'm choosing not to go political in public because that is my husband's job. I'm very political in private life, and between me and my husband, I know everything that is going on.

When you're part of the first family, your life tends to get played out in front of the whole nation.

As a political spouse, I've found that my stoicism often serves me well.

The closer you get to Number 10 the more you see what a back-breaking job that is, the pressure is absolutely constant and the loss of privacy is almost complete so I don't have ambitions in that direction and there is no vacancy nor likely to be during my time in politics.

We all know what happens to first ladies who shoot their mouths off.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

First Ladies have always been held like specimens under a media microscope.

I really don't sit here and dream what life in the White House will be like. I just can't go beyond the point when the people go to the ballot box with all that power.

The problems with First Ladies is that you have to set the standard. My role is to be both star and slave.

Politics only makes the difficult challenge of marriage even harder, with the demands of the job and the public spotlight it casts on a union.

Modern candidates seem to have to live with political matters all the time. In my father's time, a politician's home was still his castle.

First ladies, you know, we look at Michelle Obama, and we look at most first ladies, and they seem like they have it all. You know, they live in the White House, they go to state dinners, they ride on Air Force One, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But first ladies do often feel that they are given short shrift or forgotten or left at the margins.

Being a Brady comes with it's pleasures and its baggage. I'm not one given to a lack of privacy and invasion.

Look, when you're the president, there's all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it's just the nature of the job.

If you become president, you're guaranteed to develop some nervous habit.

If I had a choice, I'd rather be admired less and have my husband tormented less. I'd prefer that people concentrate on a fair assessment of him and his Presidency.

Most people wouldn't want to marry a politician.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.