I have a lot of nice Italian winter clothes that make me look like a sophisticated Lebanese professor so my friend Robert and I go around pretending to be experts in Arabic politics. It doesn't work in the summer though. I don't have the right clothes.

I'm not really involved with politics... I'm living in my cocoon with my classical music around.

We need to dig deep and give people a reason to be optimistic just as Obama is doing in America. Because in the same way that outcome of the U.S. elections will change the course of events there and around the world so too do politics here in Britain.

Negative politics have always been around.

Community organizing is all about building grassroots support. It's about identifying the people around you with whom you can create a common passionate cause. And it's about ignoring the conventional wisdom of company politics and instead playing the game by very different rules.

The trouble with Nixon is that he's a serious politics junkie. He's totally hooked and like any other junkie he's a bummer to have around especially as President.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

I'd always loved poetry and I'd always loved writing music and composing music but I hadn't thought of putting the two together until around that time.

On a summer night it can be lovely to sit around outside with friends after dinner and yes read poetry to each other. Keats and Yeats will never let you down but it's differently exciting to read the work of poets who are still walking around out there.