I believe every child has the right to a mother and a father. Men and women are not the same. That's not to say they're not entitled to equal rights but they are not the same.

I am the woman I grew to be partly in spite of my mother and partly because of the extraordinary love of her best friends and my own best friends' mothers and from surrogates many of whom were not women at all but gay men. I have loved them my entire life even after their passing.

All my friends' mothers were appalling women.

With over 3 million women battling breast cancer today everywhere you turn there is a mother daughter sister or friend who has been affected by breast cancer.

In their 30s women really start to live... they're not children anymore and they're not just mothers.

For any of us in this room today let's start out by admitting we're lucky. We don't live in the world our mothers lived in our grandmothers lived in where career choices for women were so limited.

When I get up and work out I'm working out just as much for my girls as I am for me because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly who invests in them but who also invests in herself. It's just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

My mother was very strong. Once she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father's head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood is now our mother country and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and gospel is free.