Angela Alioto Quotes

[After her 18-day disappearance in 1974:] I love my husband very, very much, but he didn't ask me when he ran for mayor and he didn't consult me about running for governor. It would be nice to be asked. ... You know, I've been my mother's daughter, my father's daughter, the wife of my husband, the mother of my six children, and grandmother to my eleven grandchildren, but I have never been me. But I am now because I went away. I am a changed woman.

There's no question that I have always wanted to be mayor. I know I am strategically not supposed to be saying that, but I don't care.

My progressive ideals are screaming in [Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos] book; what I believe. There is no muddying-up because of debate. You know exactly where I stand, because I put it down in the written word.

I think the book [Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos] has meaning for any large city with urban problems. There are political machines in a lot of large cities, and everywhere the goals of society get lost.

I just think women should support women.

It's hard for me to write about anything personal because I get way too personal.

In the Senate race I went for some candidate endorsement meetings and three people there asked me: Do you go to a therapist? Because they could not believe that with the beating I took in the mayor's race I could still come in there cracking jokes and talking about the issues!

I would suggest that people do need to trust someone, to think they care about you. I believe that in my heart.

We need to consider that only a small amount of the public vote for the mayor of a city. It's because they are disgusted and don't trust the government.

The last thing I would ever do though is actively work against another woman.

My success has been based on the issues. It's easy to fight for mental health or needle exchange or small businesses or whatever, because the machine can't interfere.

I cannot sell my soul in order to participate with Nancy Pelosi or Carole Migden or any of them. I can't do it.

I am a visible person. I'm visible and I'm controversial. I don't mind if you crave the limelight - but make it work for you!

When I think about political races, and certain consultants, the word that comes to mind is dirty. Dirty, dirty, DIRTY!

I really, really, loved being an elected official. But I also love what I'm doing now. I thrive when I can fight for people and I'm doing it now as a lawyer.

I never worked on anything so hard in my life [like my book 'Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos'], including the Bar exam. The only other thing I could compare it to is having four babies by age 24. That was hard.

My original book [Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos] was 1,700 pages. The first editor brought it down to 700; there was a lot that didn't make it in. But at last it's finished. I had a hard time signing off on it. And I was worried about it hurting anyone I loved even indirectly. I sat in my room afterwards for two hours wondering what I had done. I wondered about it being judged and if people would understand.

People have always thought I was "on" something. After a while I began to think they knew something I didn't know! But I don't know, I just love living. And I love doing what I do.