Quotes from Nicola Sturgeon

Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, it is possible for other parties to change the direction of a government without bringing a government down.

I won't say I've never felt in Alex Salmond's shadow, but latterly, when Alex was leader, I didn't. It's more about my awareness of the fact I became First Minister during a parliamentary term. That means you're First Minister, but you haven't been elected in your own right as First Minister.

Governments in countries across the world have a duty to do everything possible to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks.

What a war in Iraq will not do is bring about peace in the Middle East or end the injustices that feed resentment and breed terrorists.

It still annoys me when I read really derogatory things about how a woman looks because you would usually not read these things about a man, and that still has the potential to put women off public life.

London has a centrifugal pull on talent, investment and business from the rest of Europe and the world. That brings benefits to the broader U.K. economy.

One thing we've learned is that there's not anything that Nigel Farage won't blame on foreigners.

I am quite driven. I know what I think, and I know what I want to achieve, but I also hope that people who are asked to describe me would describe me as pretty down-to-earth, loyal, friendly. The more experience I have got in politics, I think the more I have allowed me to shine through.

My politics are wildly different from hers, but someone who has been good for women in politics, stamped her authority on European and world affairs, is Angela Merkel.

Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for.

I don't cook very often. Actually, I'd go further: I can't cook.

True gender equality in Scotland - and elsewhere - is still some way off.

In particular, I want to set a challenge to public bodies and private companies to improve gender balance on their own boards.

One of the attributes Glasgow is best known for all over the world is the friendliness of her people.

I believe we should support people to live, and I am therefore in favour of good quality palliative care.

I am quite a shy person. You say that to people, and they say, 'You do interviews, speeches. How can you be shy?' But, fundamentally, I am.

Sometimes things happen in life, sometimes they don't. Don't get me wrong: I have no regrets - if I could turn the clock back 10 or 20 years, I wouldn't want to fundamentally change the path my life has taken.

I'm a politician, and as you know, politicians are rarely very funny.

For the Scottish government, the practice of having meetings in different parts of the country is well established, but for the U.K. government, it is a much rarer event.

I'm manifestly not the same as Alex Salmond. I'm a different gender, for example... I'm being flippant, but maybe this is a partly gender-driven difference: I'm very keen that we find a way of reaching out across party divides to find things we agree on, as well as the things we disagree on.

I worry about the direction of the U.K. and U.K. politics and governance in the event of a Brexit.

Glasgow is a great city.

Haggis is delicious. It is wonderful. It's spicy, it's tasty, and you get vegetarian haggis as well.

Any politician or campaigner trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public won't get very far.