Kamala Harris quotes:

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time - the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California.

Eighty-two percent of prisoners in the United States are high-school dropouts. A high-school dropout between the ages of 30 and 34 is two-thirds more likely to be in jail, or to have been in jail, or to be dead.

We don't have to guess what Mitt Romney would have done if he were president. Because he told us. He said we should let foreclosures - and I quote - 'hit the bottom' so the market could - I quote - 'run its course.'

To change criminal justice policy in any meaningful way means to propose changing a very longstanding system. It's not realistic to think you can do it overnight.

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don't know who is calling that child.

My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

I think I have every piece of music Bob Marley ever made.

Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It's a marathon.

I think Hillary Clinton could do whatever she puts her mind to. I really do. She's incredibly dedicated to public service, she is smart as a whip, and she's effective.

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change.

Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class.

What we all want is public safety. We don't want rhetoric that's framed through ideology.

In every work environment, there will be politics. If you really want to rise to the top, you need to figure out what those politics in your workplace are. Then, you hook it in. You decide what conforms and what does not conform to your personal code.

We don't want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful - not only to that member of the community but the entire community.

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk.

I convened the first-ever national training conference for prosecutors on how to promote and deal with hate crime issues in terms of prosecutions and also protocol for defeating the gay panic defense.

I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.'

With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime.

In California, we have some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. While it is easy to conceive of innovation and regulation as mutually exclusive, California is proof that we can do both. We can innovate responsibly.

Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime.

Every day there are homeowners in California who will either receive relief so they can stay in their home, or will be in the foreclosure process and potentially lose their home. And that always weighed heavily on my mind.

You don't have to care about children to care about children. One of the things that I talk a lot about is the fact of the importance of third-grade reading level. By the end of third grade, if the child is not at reading level, it'll drop off. They never catch up.

So many people trip in front of them because they're looking over there or up ahead.

I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother's kitchen. If I don't have time to cook, I'll just read a cookbook.

I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.

What's important for my daughter to know is that... if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.

Don't pretend that you can just be oblivious to politics. You can't. What you never do is break your personal code. Have a code and keep it. You should never compromise what your priorities are.

'Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

What we know is smartphones are everywhere and they are rich in data. What we know is that there are apps once downloaded by the consumer that will also in turn download the consumers' contact book. Most consumers don't want that to happen and don't know it's happening.

To be smart on crime, we should not be in a position of constantly reacting to crime after it happens. We should be looking at preventing crime before it happens.

People who work for me know that family comes first. And I'm fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don't have to live two separate lives.

Everyone's perspective of themselves and others is based on the limitations of their exposure.

Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes.

I am a prosecutor in my bones. When I see something, I immediately go to: how is this going to affect a child?

I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.

I could do all of my activities at Howard because it was an environment that had essentially rid the ideology of false choices that I feel absolutely constricts young black students.

I have a difficult time sitting down for long periods.

I love being in a courtroom.

I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison.

I work out every morning. Only half an hour. I get on the treadmill. That's it. Every morning, I don't care what time. It gets your blood flowing. It gets your adrenaline flowing. I believe in eating well. It's not fanatical. Eat good food. Make sure you've got good vegetables.

I'm one of the luckiest people on earth.

In order to find balance, I feel very strongly about two things in particular in terms of routine. Work out, and eat well.

I've had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work.

Let's not build the policy around the abuse. That's not good policy. That's actually bad policy. Build the policy around the aspiration point. That's what we need to do when we're seeing abuse online.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice.

My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

The American dream belongs to all of us.

When you expand your ability to see, you understand that there are a lot of false choices being offered.

You got to take care of yourself. If I exercise or I eat proper foods, am I indulging myself? That's called feeding your body.

Women should not allow themselves to be caught up in the hype that says performance, meaning the motions, is what matters.