My job is to look at what politics is doing, not be a politician myself.

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.

It's very useful when politicians have doubts because there are so many choices to be made in the world.

There are some fundamental values it's impossible to be wrong about.

Eco sees the intellectual as an organizer of culture, someone who can run a magazine or a museum. An administrator, in fact. I think this is a melancholy situation for an intellectual.

No, I'm happy to go on living the life I've chosen. I'm a university teacher and I like my job.

Literature for me isn't a workaday job, but something which involves desires, dreams and fantasy.