American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free.

Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

In my case I was covering politics in Texas as a newspaper man in the 1960's.

The tax issue is the most powerful issue in American politics going back to the Tea Party. People say 'Oh Grover Norquist has power.' No. Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform focus on the tax issue. The tax issue is a powerful issue.

There's a nastiness out there that wants to harm me with words. These are my enemies - the ideologues the populists the columnists who don't like the fact that I take them on toe-to-toe. What I try to do is tell the truth. It's not the coin of the realm in politics.

I am interested in politics.

I'm not taking any interest in politics. I'm not involved in politics in any way. My life is in writing now.

I'm not involved in politics any more and they're quite right.

The essential ingredient of politics is timing.

I hate politics hate deals and deal-making hate meeting with attorneys and agents.

I became active in politics because I saw the possibility if we all sat back and did nothing of a world in which there would no longer be any stages for actors to act on.

Beware the politically obsessed. They are often bright and interesting but they have something missing in their natures there is a hole an empty place and they use politics to fill it up. It leaves them somehow misshapen.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

I've always said that in politics your enemies can't hurt you but your friends will kill you.

Short of being prime minister there isn't a better job in British politics than running London.

Politics is not a healthy lifestyle.

I loathe and detest all this trivialisation of politics.

I came into politics because I wished to change things. You can't do that by lying to people you have to educate and persuade and carry them with you - and it's often a long haul.

The art of politics consists in knowing precisely when it is necessary to hit an opponent slightly below the belt.

Whenever you discuss politics it is always better to use individual names rather then the term neocon.

My philosophy comes from a worldview that looks at the world as one. It's a holistic view that sees the world as interconnected and interdependent and integrated in so many different ways which informs my politics.

People are fed up with the politics where candidates just rip each other apart and then the voters lose in the end because no one really knows what anybody stands for.

Politics is pop. Our job as comedians - especially me as a late-night talk show which is a broader audience - is to amplify what we think America is thinking.

My advice is very simple: if you can win a small battle it gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles and so it is very much a bottom-up grass-roots way of doing politics.