Politics & Power Quote by Tom Glazer

There is a sly self-portrait hiding inside this modest apology: Glazer clocks his own verbosity, then immediately reframes it as a fork in the road he didnt take. The line lands because it performs the very thing it confesses. He talks around his talking, building a little comic spiral of maybe-too-much words that still feels precise. Its not self-hatred; its self-management.

The careers he lists arent random. Lawyer, professor, politician: three professions built on persuasion, authority, and the sanctioned right to hold the floor. Calling a politician "windy" is the tell. Glazer is separating talk that serves power from talk that serves people. As a musician - and specifically a folk artist who worked in an era when songs doubled as civic education, union ballast, and childrens culture - his voice had a different social contract. The aim wasnt to win arguments or dominate rooms, but to carry something communal, to make language sing and stick.

The final clause, "though I'm glad I am not any of these", softens the jab and sharpens it at once. He admits the temptation of those roles (the ego in being listened to), then declines the status they confer. Subtext: he knows how easily talk becomes performance detached from consequence. In Glazers world, the best use of a big mouth is a melody - a form that disciplines speech, makes it accountable, and turns "too much" into something you can share.