Few businessmen are capable of being in politics, they don't understand the democratic process, they have neither the tolerance or the depth it takes. Democracy isn't a business.
I'm conservative in my thought. I'm conservative in my theology. I'm conservative in my politics.
Meanwhile, politics is about getting a candidate in front of the public as a star, politics as rock'n'roll, politics as a movie.
I suppose I've always carried what is regarded as a bit of unnecessary baggage in Britain. I've always carried the charge that I am an intellectual in politics.
The best politics is no politics.
I think politics is important. It's how we run our society. I think it should be natural to have an interest in the subject, and I almost don't understand why some people don't.
My father's politics and ideas were, to me, unforgivable. He was a Jewish convert who became very anti-Semitic, and I didn't find the anti-Semitism forgivable.
Most voters assume because these political 'pros' are on TV or write for national papers, they know politics. Sadly, most don't have a clue.
I do not know much about politics, but I am trying to do the best I can with this administration until the time shall come for me to turn it over to somebody else.
You never know what'll happen in politics.
I'm not in the business of politics.
Barack Obama has brought glamour back to American politics - not the faux glamour-by-association of campaigning with movie stars or sailing with the Kennedys, but the real thing. The candidate himself is glamorous. Audiences project onto him the personal qualities and political positions they want in a president.
Less about politics, 'The Path to 9/11' focused on the emergence of radical Islamic terror as a clear and present American threat.
Whoever decides to dedicate their life to politics knows that earning money isn't the top priority.
I've been lucky enough in 'The West Wing' and 'Brothers & Sisters' to talk about the issues that are important to me with none of the awful mud-slinging or public scrutiny you have in politics.
Local politics, like everything else, are not what they used to be. But the fact is that our political system - like our physical existence - still breaks down along geographical lines.
I don't know what's more embarrassing, these musicians and actors talking about politics in interviews or the media actually giving them credibility about it. It's absurd that a celebrity could speak out on the economy or politics with no more justification than a hit album or a movie.
Politics is the most corrupt profession on Earth, no matter where you are.
If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise.
You won't hear me talk about my politics, you won't hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won't hear me comment on the Iraq war. You'll only hear me talk about being gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues.
War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.
You know, you can be really quite subversive in popular fiction, which is capable of taking on big issues of politics, war, the rise and fall of commercial dynasties.
The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt.
For me, it all begins with faith; it begins with what matters most, and I try and put what I believe to be moral truth first. My philosophy of government second. And my politics third.
I come from a political family. My father was a freedom fighter. He was a prominent leader of the locality and member of the Congress party. He spent 10 years in British prisons. In the evening, in our living room, the only subject we used to discuss was politics. So politics was not unfamiliar to me.
In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change.
Politics was sort of a way of life in our family.
My concern is to keep religion and the state separated. I don't think that religion and politics go together. When you see political decisions colored by religion, decisions that affect us all... I thought: 'I do not want to go back to medieval times.'
Political conservatives need to recognize that multicultural politics is converging with leftist politics, and not only on 'social issues' like same-sex marriage. Our Constitution is also on the chopping block, and if you don't see that, you haven't been paying attention.
As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?
One of the things that I think you see sometimes in politics is a certain degree of caution. It's usually advised by consultants who don't want to see you march to the end of a limb.
I think that people are tired. They're tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.
Democracy is a revelation, but it's complicated. There are elections to hold, politics to create, rights to assert, grievances to settle and institutions to build. To many, it's exhilarating. For others, it can be disappointing when it turns out that democracy doesn't immediately make life better.
The country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. We have to offer an alternative vision.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.
In politics, as in poetry, it is sometimes true that it is darkest before dawn.
