I almost became a political journalist, having worked as a reporter at the time of Watergate. The proximity to those events motivated me, when I wound up doing philosophy, to try to use it to move the public debate.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Journalism took me around the world. I worked in London for ten years and reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and the first Gulf War.
I used to be a journalist.
I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn't ever have to rely on the press for my information.
When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from journalism.
My first real writing job was at 'Rolling Stone,' so I wrote about rock-and-roll and politics and the like. At the time, I really didn't know what I wanted to write, and I did a bunch of investigative journalism.
Having been a journalist for almost 20 years and then becoming a politician has definitely been an interesting and enriching experience for me.
When I started working for Rolling Stone, I became very interested in journalism and thought maybe that's what I was doing, but it wasn't true. What became important was to have a point of view.
And I've been incredibly lucky to have a long career in journalism that has given me a front-row seat to some of the most important moments in modern American political life.
I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power.
I became a journalist because one didn't have to specialise.