Quotes from Nicola Sturgeon

I'm not a scientist. If there is a risk to our environment, there will be no fracking.

I'll be arguing for Scotland to vote to stay in the E.U.

The Scottish Government will continue to do all it can to get people into work.

I'm quite hypercritical of myself. It's a very Scottish thing, always thinking that you've got to be that bit better than everyone else to be good enough.

To every woman out there who thinks that they might like to get involved in politics or stand for parliament, I say go for it. If I can do it, so can you.

A minority government can't govern without support from other parties.

Parties that win elections should form the government, not parties that lose elections.

For parents - women in particular - good quality, affordable childcare is vital.

I think it is important the communities are listened to and that their voice is heard, particularly with local government boundaries more than parliamentary boundaries, because you are talking very much about communities. It can be a very emotive thing.

The U.K. needs a strong opposition, and Labour shows no signs of being capable of being that. The SNP is filling that void and will go on seeking to do that.

It would be a very serious mistake for the U.K. to vote to leave the European Union, and I think it would be democratically indefensible for Scotland, if we had voted to stay in, to face the prospect of being taken out.

Scotland never voted for Margaret Thatcher.

I feel sorry for generations of Labour voters and supporters who must look and wonder what on earth has gone wrong and what Labour is for.

The U.K. government sets a cap on how much can be spent on discretionary housing payments.

It's not opinion polls that determine the outcome of elections, it's votes in ballot boxes.

I want there to be another independence referendum at some stage. I want Scotland to be independent, but I wouldn't choose to have it happen because England votes to come out of the E.U.

Labour long ago realised it could no longer automatically assume that it would win elections in Glasgow and other places where it has taken people's votes for granted for decades - as we have seen across Scotland at local council and Holyrood elections.

Polls can change; people's opinions can change. Voting intentions can change, and I think it would be a silly leader, a silly political party, that would assume that we have it sewn up.

Our MPs will take decisions on how they're voting on a day-to-day basis. But I'm the leader of the party, and in terms of our overall strategy and how we vote on key issues, then ultimately, those decisions will be mine.

Voting Labour in the past hasn't protected Scotland against Tory governments.

The SNP became a minority government in 2007, then a majority one in 2011. But Labour viewed what was happening as some kind of aberration. They felt the problem wasn't theirs: they didn't have to change; the Scottish people had just gone down this wrong road, and if they waited long enough, they would find their way back.

Many people from many different walks of life have marriages that break up, and those are deeply personal, deeply painful but ultimately private matters.

Some of the brightest and best women in our society are stifled in their ambitions.

Do I look like one of the most dangerous women in Britain? Come on!