149 Quotes by Valerie Jarrett

One miscalculation I made is I did not fully appreciate that the Republicans in Congress were going to just say no to everything. Even when there are ideas that have traditionally been bipartisan.

Just because somebody says no doesn't mean that you have to listen. You can do what you think is right.

I finally said, 'I don't care if you're the first person in your family to be a lawyer.' Everybody thought what I was doing was really exciting, but it was not moving me one bit. And that's when I decided to join city government in Chicago, and that changed my life.

My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.

Encouraging the next generation is really where my heart is.

Equal pay, paid leave, paid sick days, workplace flexibility, and affordable childcare - everywhere I go around the United States, as I talk to working families, these are the issues they raise... We have over 43 million Americans who don't have a single day of sick leave, but everybody gets sick. Everybody's children get sick.

I want everyone to feel empowered. Everyone can do something.

I certainly hope that we can all continue to be forces for good after leaving the White House.

I don't play golf. I don't play basketball. I don't really like cards. I don't think anybody questions whether or not I have a role to play here. And so I think it is irrelevant whether the president wants to do that in some of his free time. What's really important is, when we have something to say, does he listen to us?