My first meeting as a senator my first day they were already talking about the next election. Part of that's the permanent campaign part of that's a word I've been using more frequently 'tribal.' Our politics has become tribal: It's us versus them.

I wanted the feel in these books to be like an epic fantasy with kings queens dukes and court politics but of course like what I was explaining before about making the science make sense you have to make the politics make sense too.

Politics isn't about left versus right it's about top versus bottom.

Acting is fun and I refuse to get involved in the semantics and the politics of strategy and breaking out of something or doing something because you need to do something else. For me it's all about what fuels my soul and if I'm passionate about a screenplay then that's what I'll do next.

I was very aware of office politics because I was so baffled by them. So much so goes unsaid. No one says 'you're a cheeky so-and-so ' no one says 'you're so moody ' nobody ever confronts anyone else about anything. But I'm very crass and I'm very confrontational and I have a temper. I had to be hyper-vigilant in every office I worked in.

Every week I read about myself in a magazine about something that I haven't done or some place that I've never been or don't even know. It's just gossip rumors egos and politics.

I ask you: turn a deaf ear to the special interests. Let politics stand down for a while. don't waste anytime thinking about future elections until we've done our jobs here.

If we tried to write about politics you'd realize that we're all a bunch of idiots.

The larger meaning here is that mainstream journalists simply cannot talk about things that the two parties agree on this is the black hole of American politics.

Yes you need substance in politics - but I think your style also says something about how you arrive at some of your conclusions.