Talk of citizenship today is often thin and tinny. The word has a faintly old-fashioned feel to it when used in everyday conversation. When evoked in national politics, it's usually accompanied by the shrill whine of a descending culture-war mortar.

Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives, I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the '04 elections is that politics is a word game.

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.

And after I make a lot of money, I'll be able to afford running for office.

What politicians want to create is irreversible change because when you leave office someone changes it back again.

In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.

I can't let important policy decisions hinge on the fact that an election is coming up every 90 days.

The '90s were extremely diverse, almost like a laboratory of the new century. There was much experimenting around, in politics, economics, gender and family structures, and also in fashion. There was a cloud of possibilities which kept us all dizzy.

While we face economic obstacles that challenge every decision made in Washington, decisions made merely for political gain must stop. It's time to restore civility in Congress. It's time for action where action is needed - all politics aside.

You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.

People want change but not too much change. Finding that balance is tricky for every politician.

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

You know they say the most dangerous person of the world is a member of the United States Congress just home from a three-day fact-finding trip.

I always voted at my party's call, and I never thought of thinking for myself at all.

Do you know why dogs are man's best friend? It's because they're not in politics.

There are many ways of encouraging people to make life better other than joining a political party. Politics with a small 'p' isn't just about darkened committee rooms, endless meetings - it is about giving people the right to make decisions about our lives.

I'd like to be for cinema what Shakespeare was for theatre, Marx for politics and Freud for psychology: someone after whom nothing is as it used to be.

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

We live in a world in which politics has replaced philosophy.

Apparently God takes reception of Holy Communion seriously. Apparently some things are more sacred than politics. Apparently it's all or nothing when it comes to being Catholic.

A politician will do anything to keep his job - even become a patriot.

A liberal is a man who is willing to spend somebody else's money.