I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics or oppressive the situation may be, whether it's subsumed within a human being or between two human beings. I want to help us hold a mirror to ourselves.
I don't care what you do - baseball or politics - George W. Bush is always going to be compared to his father. I just want it to be an easy answer in 50 years - Who was the better player, me, or my kids? I want it to be my kids.
University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
Politics abhors a vacuum.
Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge.
In my right-wing politics of the time, I held that unemployment was usually the fault of the unemployed.
It's time to let science and medicine, not politics and rhetoric, lead us to good, sound policy.
I was looking for a new challenge and got an interest in trying to make a difference for families. You become more aware of how important families are. They are the key institution in our culture. The reason I got into politics was to try to make a difference for that key institution, whether it was tax policy, education policy, or whatever.
We may like to think politics is a battle of ideas and that the best idea wins out. But that's not true in most elections. Most elections are about the worst ideas losing, not the best ideas winning.
American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free.
Keeping politics out of the courtroom is a goal every state aspires to achieve.
Neither politics of chaos and anarchy has succeeded earlier and nor will succeed in future.
TV serves us most usefully when presenting junk-entertainment; it serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse - news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion.
I don't take a great deal of interest in party politics. Social politics interests me a great deal more.
I will do what the Prime Minister asks me to do; that is my consistent approach to politics and to service.
One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government.
Korea can't become a 'first-class' nation unless regulation and 'a sense of power' disappear. The nation's politics is the fourth-class, bureaucratic are the third-class, and business is the second-class.
I remember my dad supporting everyone on the local and national level. I was pretty much born into it. I saw the importance of politics firsthand. It gave you a chance to be at the table.
I describe in 'Chimpanzee Politics' how the alpha male needs broad support to reach the top spot. He needs some close allies and he needs many group members to be on his side.
It is the belief that extremes and excesses of inequality must be reduced so that each person is free to fully develop his or her full potential. This is why we take precious time out of our lives and give it to politics.
Ideology, politics and journalism, which luxuriate in failure, are impotent in the face of hope and joy.
I tend to avoid televisions, politics, and places with velvet ropes.
I never thought I would write about the Book of Revelation. It's so dense; it's so complex and puzzling. But then I found I was thinking about a number of themes, one of which has to do with politics and religion.
Right now, politics follows the rules of talk radio - using conflict, tension, fear, and resentment to find new recruits.
Working together during the past three years, we have confounded the skeptics and the cynics. We've shown that here in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans can come together, put politics aside, and make tough decisions when times demand it.
There can be no wise politics without thought beforehand.
Everyone thinks politics will just go on the way it is. I don't agree.
Finality is not the language of politics.
Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended.
Ultimately, my books are not about the politics, although the toil and the struggle and the wars in Afghanistan have a significant impact on the lives of my characters.
I think Karl Rove saw that in George W. Bush early on and understood the impact that he could have on Texas politics and probably on national politics.
It's important that we start conversations about changing the culture of sexual harassment and discrimination in politics, state capitols, and our larger communities with an acknowledgment of the courage of so many women who have chosen to speak up and speak out.
The 1986 tax act is sort of the unsung hero of the very good economic times we had for a long time. Of course, politics gums it all up again and preferences get put in.
Democrats always like to brag that their guys are smarter than the opponents and Republicans always like to brag that their guys are more moral than the opponents. But if you're looking for morals in politics you're looking for bananas in the cheese department.
Even with politics, stuff comes around again. Woody Guthrie would recognize America today.
I think Syria is in a particularly sensitive geopolitical position in terms of the politics of the Middle East.
