You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path to that. I grew up in a house where books were everywhere.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I think we sometimes forget that we have so many other places to create change. My dad taught me this, but the political is one spot to make change. But so is writing a book.
I thought a dignified thing to do would be to live in the country by the time I'm 50 and write books.
A lot of people in government don't really read books at all.
You can't be a change-maker by reading a book.
It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.
I don't see that books can be written without political context - not if they're relevant and ambitious.
I learnt a lot in government, and I've learnt a lot since leaving government. The kind of journey of being in government is that you start at your most popular and least capable, and you end at your most capable and least popular.
You eventually have to figure out how to balance the books. So that's the reason I gave up my day job to come do this was to go fight to create the space where spending matches America's capacity to tax, and that means economic growth and a smaller, humbler federal government.
I have two bookcases that used to be filled with cookbooks, but now it's mostly books about politics and government. I might just give this all up and run for office.
I do not believe you have to be an elected official to help 'change the world.' In fact, maybe it is easier from the outside.
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