We all experience power struggles in our lives - at the workplace, with our friends, in our love lives. In a way, we're all politicians.
I have proudly spent several periods in government, but I'm not a career politician. I come from a family of 'citizen soldiers.'
Scientists are always the ones who head into the ocean, but I want to take writers and politicians, people who can convey the beauty that is there and perhaps do something to take care of it.
The American people don't believe politicians. They don't believe business leaders or Hollywood celebrities or athletes or other supposed role models. And they certainly don't believe the news media.
I'm not sure I am a politician. I would say that I am still an artist, and I'm trying to use politics as an instrument for change.
It is kind of tedious after a while, to parse politicians doing the same thing over and over again. The facts change from week to week, but the sort of masquerade doesn't.
Many people leave government disillusioned about its ability to achieve change and cynical about politicians. I left with rather opposite lessons.
The Saudi government uses a lot of British equipment to suppress their own people. But we're happy for our politicians to go on advertising trips to Saudi, selling our weapons at the trade conventions.
Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances.
Most politicians keep close tabs on what's happening back home and work assiduously to keep lines of communications open with the political players in their states or districts.
I think that if we don't get these politicians to come together we face the most predictable economic crisis in history.
Some people are born gardeners, some are politicians. I was an actor. It took a great deal of pain before I figured that out. I didn't relate to most of it.
The majority of people think their children's lives will not be as good as theirs. Nearly half of all Americans are no longer proud of their country. Politicians have become a despised breed.
It takes a very strong brain to resist the absolutes, the myths that the media and the politicians peddle - the idea that if you are too kind, where does it all end? That not to help someone is somehow a good idea.
Politicians who lack the vision to lead the community on big issues like public transport often hide their inaction by blaming other levels of government when anyone complains.
To be fair, lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.
Politicians are usually the first to forget that if you assume someone else is acting in bad faith, they will do the same to you. Questioning motives poisons the well.
Tonight, I concurred with President Bush when he stated that the decisions on future involvement of U.S. troops in Iraq should be left to the Pentagon and not politicians in Washington.
I am neither a sociologist nor a politician. All I can do is imagine for myself what the future will be like.
There's this unspoken club where you say to each other: Oh God, if they only knew how ordinary I was, they wouldn't be interested. That includes movie stars and politicians.
The function of the politician, therefore, is one of continuous watchfulness and activity, and he must have intimate knowledge of details if he would work out grand results.
