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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 always believe writing is an indispensable part of one's political armoury.

I've always tried to write about America. It's very worth a writer's effort.

I don't make that hard and fast distinction between political and nonpolitical writing. I write about what bothers me.

I am not a political writer. I agree with Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell, who are social writers. I can't write in that fashion. I am not good enough for that. What I am interested in is family dramas and why we are doing bad things to each other and what our motives are.

I never think that anything I'm writing is bluntly political in any way. I'm not going for commentary.

If we tried to write about politics, you'd realize that we're all a bunch of idiots.

What I do not want to write is didactic political tracts.