Quote of the Day (Michael Dobbs, on Politicians’ ‘Dangerous Phase’)

“Politicians are much like aging authors and older women. The dangerous phase in their lives is when they are no longer content with the respect of friends but demand the adulation of an audience.” —British novelist and Conservative politician Michael Dobbs, House of Cards (1989)

(The image accompanying this post shows Ian Richardson as Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in BBC's adaptation of Dobbs’ House of Cards: To Play the King. More than two decades later, Kevin Spacey played his American counterpart in the Netflix adaptation.)

Quote of the Day (‘House of Cards’ Michael Dobbs, on the ‘Difference Between Writing and Politics’)

“There’s a difference between writing and politics. In politics, if somebody shouts at you, you get very angry, and you decide you want to get revenge, but as a writer, you go through pain and you can use that pain. It doesn’t mean you’re not feeling it, but you can analyze that pain to make you better as a writer.” —Michael Dobbs quoted in Alexandra Wolfe, “Weekend Confidential: Michael Dobbs--The British Politician and ‘House of Cards’ Creator Prefers the Writing Life,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 28-March 1, 2015

Quote of the Day (‘House of Cards’ Creator, on 'Private Shame' in Politics)

“It’s all personal. Why did Maggie Thatcher do what she did? Why did Winston Churchill do what he did? Why did Roosevelt? Often great leaders are uncomfortable, and they’re driven on the public scene sometimes by private shame.” —Michael Dobbs, on why the human aspects of politics make for great prose, quoted in Alexandra Wolfe, “Weekend Confidential: Michael Dobbs--The British Politician and ‘House of Cards’ Creator Prefers the Writing Life,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 28-March 1, 2015

(The image, of course, is of Kevin Spacey, as the chief character--rising, ruthless politico Francis Underwood--in the Netflix series House of Cards.)