It's not that I'm apolitical... In my youth, I was a freelance political speechwriter, which taught me a lot about writing fiction, I must add.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've truly tried to be apolitical.
And I'm not apolitical - I'm very specific in my politics. But a lot of the time it's nobody's business unless you're over at my house having dinner.
What I do know is that writing is the thing I am best at, and I don't have the stomach, the ability, the strength or the courage to enter the political arena. And I think writing can be a political act, if only to let those people accountable know they are being watched. Literature can be a conscience.
I was a political journalist; I came to writing novels through an interest in politics and power.
I don't make that hard and fast distinction between political and nonpolitical writing. I write about what bothers me.
I am not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing reflecting more about who I am or other people.
I am of the opinion that I am not a political writer, and, moreover, that as far as true literature is concerned, there actually are no political writers. I think that my writing is no more political than ancient Greek theatre. I would have become the writer I am in any political regime.
I'm apolitical. Where all that Conservative business came along from, I don't know.
I grew up in an apolitical household. I never left the country. When I became an adult, I started traveling and became interested in politics, and I probably talked about things in a silly, ignorant way.
I never think that anything I'm writing is bluntly political in any way. I'm not going for commentary.