I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If giving money to a politician prejudiced my ability to think and write honestly, I wouldn't do it. Fortunately, it doesn't.
But I don't need to use politics as a way of making money.
There are so many people who are so much better qualified to write about politics than I am.
I'm a politician. I run for office. That's my profession.
One's politics are part of one even when one is writing. But if I want to say anything about the state of civil society, I will write an essay. The responsibilities you feel as a novelist are literary ones, I think, not civic ones. And I think politicians are interesting to write about.
I have done things politically, and I've been running a business at the same time, but I sort of joke that to some extent I do more than most legislators have done in their whole careers, and I've been doing it as a part-time job.
I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.
I don't make political work. I don't make work that criticises the state. I make as human work as I can.
I am not a politician; I've never run for anything in my life. I'm an economist. I'm a broadcaster. I've been an adviser. I worked for Ronald Reagan.
There isn't much political coloration in my economic writing; it's not surprising that few people know my political views. They really aren't very important.