Hillary on Writing Her Book: ‘I’d Write About Something and I’d Have To Go Lie Down’

‘It was painful’

RUSH EXCERPT:

CLINTON: "So, you know, I just began to talk and listen to people gather information and I think that it hit me really around the inauguration, people had talked to me about what are you going to do and, you know, will you write something else? I was still just trying to muddle through. It really hit me that there were these very important issues that needed to be discussed, debated, even, that our democracy and country relied upon that kind of self-examination, and I thought, well, I need to know what happened and I need to be as honest, candid, open as I possibly can in order to figure it out for myself. And maybe, doing it in a book, would provide the discipline, the deadline to try to think it through. And so, really, starting in February I dove in and I just decided I was going to write it . It was painful. I say in the book that I'd write about something and I'd have to go lie down. Because it was just so hard to think about the mistakes I made , you know, missed opportunities. But then, also, to come to grips with these other big forces at work that I think had a determinative impact on the outcome. It ended up being really cathartic for me, personally. From what people are telling me as I've begun to do book signings and talking about the book, I think it does provide some catharsis and some opportunity for reflection for a lot of other people, too. I am very happy about that, because there are really important issues we have to come to grips with, and I wrote it not just to say what happened but what we need to do to make sure what happened doesn't happen again. And that's what I'm going to spend a lot of time on."

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