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When you start to think about politicians, you've got to realize these are strange creatures. Other than the fact that they can't tell directions, and they have very strange breeding habits, how do you actually work with these things?

Generally speaking, politicians are an odd bunch. They seem to have very thick skins and genuinely don't care what people think. And charm is a very important part of the politician's armoury. I try to resist that kind of charm.

Politicians around the world are very different, but they all have one thing in common: The first thing they respond to is public opinion.

Most politicians come into politics because they want to make a difference; we just have different ideas how to do it.

To me, a politician's job is to listen to constituents' problems and try to sort them out.

There's something just so kind of smooth about politicians.

Politicians are no different than the rest of the public.

The minute somebody joins a committee... they immediately suffer from committee brain. They become wildly over-enthusiastic, over-optimistic, over-pessimistic. Committees turn people into idiots, and politics is a committee.

Politicians are trying to attract people to issues.