I feel much more comfortable in politics than I did in book writing. Book writing is so hard. Politics felt easy compared to that.

I think that most people have deeply creative sensibilities.

If you think art is a competitive forum, then you're going to stop doing it if you're not good. But if it's not competitive, it's something that you'll keep doing.

I think about people and events in terms of archetypes a lot.

History is a series of mistakes. Now the task is to plan for those mistakes so those of us who are populists can actually take over the reins of power when the right mistakes are made.

There's a tendency, especially among academics, to see politics as deeply dirty and deeply egotistical.

I think part of the reason the Tea Party has resonated is that people feel disempowered. The Tea Party says, "You are out of power because of big government." Then some Democrats tend to respond by saying, "No, you're wrong, you're not out of power." It's a sense that doesn't resonate with people's lived experience.