My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.'
Kamala Harris
The American dream belongs to all of us.
I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.
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.
If we do not lift up women and families, everyone will fall short.
I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else's shoes, and identify and reject false choices.
The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are good, fair, and just, and they want their country to reflect those ideals.
You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.
If you want to deal with an epidemic - crime or health - the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first.
Here's the thing: every office I've run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.
I'm opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.
A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.
My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement.
I just think it's so important not to take yourself too seriously.
I'm one of the luckiest people on earth.
I'm a career prosecutor. I have been trained, and my experience over decades, is to make decisions after a review of the evidence and the facts. And not to jump up with grand gestures before I've done that. Some might interpret that as being cautious. I would tell you that's just responsible.
There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.
So many people trip in front of them because they're looking over there or up ahead.
My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.
I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.
I'll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision.
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.
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.
Let's be clear about this, and let's be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison.
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.
The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it's a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people.
I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.
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.
Racism is real in this country.
I was standing on a ladder outside the Homestead juvenile immigrant detention center outside Miami, looking over the fence, and I saw children lined up like prisoners. They had been separated from their families and put in this private detention facility. It was horrible.
A family shares hardships and a connected history.
I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone's life.
I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.'
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.
In this great country, we celebrate success. We don't want to penalize those who have done well.
Well, yeah, people are working in our country. You know what? They're working two and three jobs, and in our America, people should not have to work more than one job to be able to put food on the table and have a roof over their head.
I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison.
We don't have to let extremists define us.
What we all want is public safety. We don't want rhetoric that's framed through ideology.
My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.
I think I have every piece of music Bob Marley ever made.
Over the course of my career in law enforcement, I have witnessed over and over again the selflessness and sacrifice of law enforcement who lay their lives on the line every day to protect people who they will never meet and people who will never know their names.
We've got to keep our eye on what's happening with Russia and North Korea. We cannot lose sight of domestic policy, either. Healthcare. Immigration. Climate change.
We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.
Homophobia is real in this country.
I believe you've got to do your due diligence.
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.
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 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 was born realizing the flaws in the criminal justice system.
