There is this concept of politics as a dirty game. It's a difficult game, but it doesn't have to be dirty. I think this is what we need to bring to politics. I think politics around the world has very often been captured by big interests - 'lobbies' they call them in the States.

This idea that a book can either be about character and feeling, or about politics and idea, is just a false binary. Ideas are an expression of the feelings and the intense emotions we hold about the world.

Most people get their politics, obviously, from TV shows about senators or movies about them or... all the day-to-day press and the talk shows.

I call it people-to-people politics and that's what politics should be about, reaching out and helping one another and touching one another about what we're going to do.

Politics was my third act. But I could have a fourth. I don't know what that will be yet, but there will be one.