Sarah Palin at ShoutLife.com

"We had flutes and trombones around the house. For my siblings and me, music was important to give us some balance. If it weren't for music our entire social life and our avocations would have had to do with sports"

"I would think we all tear up during the national anthem at the beginning of a baseball game, don't we? That's an alikeness between Alaskans and New Yorkers"

"I eat, therefore I hunt. I want to fill my freezer with good, clean, healthy protein for my kids. That's what I was raised on. It is abundant and it is available here in Alaska, with caribou and moose and different game and lots of very healthy and delicious wild Alaskan seafood. That's what we eat. So that's why I hunt and why I fish."

"A courageous person is anyone who loses a child and can still get out of bed in the morning."

"My favorite place in Alaska is on a cold winter day in my own house, with fat snowflakes falling. In my nice warm home."

"Carmex. I'm addicted to Carmex. I don't go anywhere without Carmex"

"The first place I worked at was an ice-cream store called Ferina's, in Wasilla. In a fishing village called Dillingham, I worked waiting tables at a bar. Serving people, you learn patience. When someone's mad at you because you're not serving them in the manner that they want to be served, you have to be tempered and graceful."

"After a long day, if the weather's good, I like to take a long, hot run to unwind. Otherwise, lately, I take a bath with Trig, and I answer e-mails, and then we all fall asleep in my big bed while we listen to Piper read her Junie B. Jones books out loud. She's learning to read and she'll read for hours on end. It's idyllic. It's amazing."

"Two meanings in Bristol's name: I worked at the Bristol Inn, and Todd grew up in Bristol Bay. But also, Bristol, Connecticut, is the home of ESPN. And when I was in high school, my desire was to be a sportscaster. ESPN was just kicking off, just getting off the ground, and I thought that's what I was going to do in life, is be one of the first woman sportscasters. Until I learned that you'd have to move to Bristol, Connecticut. It was far away. So instead, I had a daughter and named her Bristol."

"Hot? If only people could see me as I come in from a run early in the morning without a trough full of makeup on, I think that they'd have a different opinion."

"I bite my lip when I'm tempted to wisecrack, because I'm always thinking of something that I'd love to say but know that I better not say it because of the position that I'm in."

"Running is my sanity. Sweat is my sanity. And that was a frustration of mine on the campaign trail, when we couldn't carve out a half an hour or an hour a day to run. The day never went as well as it would have had I had that time to go sweat."

Q. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be? And what restaurant would you take this person to?

A. Condoleezza Rice. I'd prepare halibut and blueberry pie for her in my own kitchen.

Q. Tell us one thing even your closest friends don't know about you.

A. My disdain for shopping is pretty extraordinary.

Q. Name something in American culture that really irks you. And why.

A. Ninety percent of what's on prime-time television irks me. I'd just much rather be reading than hearing that daft TV buzz that's too constant.

Q. Do you cook? If so, what's your specialty?

A. Yes. Fat pots of moose burger chili that I cook after long snowmachine rides.

Q. How do you take your coffee, and where do you get it?

A. Skinny white chocolate mocha -- all over town.

Q. If you were attending a costume party, who or what would you go as?

A. Tina Fey.

Q. What's your favorite piece of artwork in your house?

A. A. My daughter's handprint that's displayed in a Native mask. Piper made it herself in preschool.

Q. Name three favorite movies.

A. "Rudy," "Miracle on Ice" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Q. How did you spend your PFD?
A. Hockey ice bills and braces.

Q. If you found yourself alone with an entire day all to yourself, how would you spend it?

A. Run, read, bake. Then run and read some more.

Q. What was the best job you ever had that didn't involve politics?

A. Working in KTUU's sports department. At the time, John Carpenter was just the weekend sports guy and John Tracy, Maria Downey and I were very young.

Q. Do you have pets? If so, what kind, what breeds and what are their names?

A. Right now we only own one fish. It's blue. I think the kids call it "Disco."