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Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public.

It's to be a person who's able to shoot little arrows into sacred cows and knock politicians off their pedestals, to look out for hypocrisy, advocate for all sorts of things from social justice to peace.

The question is not whether personal spiritual beliefs shape a politician's values and policies, but what spiritual beliefs mold those values and policies.

It's an honor putting art above politics. Politics can be seductive in terms of things reductive to the soul.

But the ability to articulate what you are doing, to be clear about it, and to stick to it is, I think, the essence of political leadership.

The purpose of a politician is to be a leader. A politician has to lead. Otherwise he's just a follower.

Being fundamentally decent and honest and willing to put others before yourself - that's necessary for being an effective policymaker.

This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want them to be bastions of moral integrity, perfect people, saints. And on the other hand, we want them to be effective leaders.

Politics is a place of humble hopes and strangely modest requirements, where all are good who are not criminal and all are wise who are not ridiculously otherwise.

I don't think there's any one definition, but to do effective political work you have to have vision and practicality, and learn how to persuade people that what you feel needs to be done does need to be done.