I mean, I felt terrible. And in the beginning, I mean, I was completely devastated. I mean, can you imagine the kind of guilt that you would feel, and the responsibility?
More quotes from Monica Lewinsky
I was enamored with him. And I was excited. And I was enjoying it.
Getting and keeping my immunity became very important to me. For I needed to take care of myself and my family. No one else was worried about me.
So it was sort of an odd time because I had been hired, but my paperwork hadn’t gone through. So I worked as an intern during the government shutdown, as an intern, but I already had a job.
When I think of the person that I thought was Bill Clinton, I think he had genuine remorse. When I think of the person that I now see is 100 percent politician, I think he’s sorry he got caught.
I’m an incredibly lucky girl. For someone who has made some very foolish mistakes and had some tough lessons to learn very quickly, I am still incredibly lucky.
So I think it’s – what was important to me is that I found that I can’t change the fact that people already have made an opinion about me. But I don’t think that should stop me from trying to correct some of the misperceptions that are out there.
I chose to not wear a wire and tape people. I chose to not get immunity until – were accepted, whatever – until the independent counsel’s office was comfortable with what I said was the truth.
I certainly know that this relationship could not have continued the way it did, when I was at the Pentagon and the president was obviously at the White House, without Betty.
I know I will never have an affair with a married man again.
I was worried about my mom more than I was worried about the president. And then I was worried about the president, and then I was worried about myself.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t angry some days. But I really have worked hard to put a lot of the anger and disappointment in the past.
I mean, there was a portion, of course, that I think, when I look back now, that there was a portion of what attracted me must have been the awe of him being a powerful man in this environment, not to take away from who he is as a real person.
Well, for me, really, I think it was I wanted to try and clear up some of the misperceptions that were out there and fill in some of the historical gaps.
Well, it was actually – I brought the idea of doing a documentary to HBO back in 2000, when there were some press reports sort of were bandied about that there were going to TV movies based on some of the books that were out.
I mean, I felt terrible. And in the beginning, I mean, I was completely devastated. I mean, can you imagine the kind of guilt that you would feel, and the responsibility?
I did though at least expect him to correct the false statements he made when he was trying to protect the Presidency. Instead, he talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking. I was the buffet and he just couldn’t resist the dessert.
At one point, I actually, ironically, thought I might go into criminology and work with the FBI.
I voted Republican this year; the Democrats left a bad taste in my mouth.
He could have made it right with the book. But he hasn’t. He is a revisionist of history. He has lied.
He ended it. He just said he didn’t – he – well, what he said was that he didn’t feel it was right, and you know, I mean that’s – because he ended it, he’d probably have to be the one to answer that.
It was that chemistry. And was the fact that he was president part of that chemistry? I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. But it was – I was there because there was chemistry. I wasn’t there because, oh, this is the president.
It was a mutual relationship.
I have spent the past several years working so hard to just move on, and to try and build a life for myself.
I’ve been told by the prosecutors and by my own attorneys I should go to law school. I guess I have a knack for it.
This was a mutual relationship, mutual on all levels, right from the way it started and all the way through. I don’t accept that he had to completely desecrate my character.
And I felt sorry, and I have felt bad about what happened.
But, clearly to me, what I’ve come to see is that that happened because I didn’t have enough feelings of self-worth. So that I didn’t feel that… I was worthy of being number one to a man.
And understandably so, that when you’re in legal jeopardy, you really cannot put yourself in a position to open yourself up to the media.