Robert Menasse is one of the few internationally acclaimed writers to have taken European integration as a literary subject, exploring it from its centre Brussels (in The Capital) to its margins (in Enlargement). In this interview, he explains that he was inspired to write about the European Union because it has impacted the everyday lives of citizens in virtually every domain, and that writing about it is a way to document the unique characteristics of our time. He argues that there are 27 ways to be democratic—one for each member state—and that these should not be pitted against each other, but rather developed as part of a common project to reconcile the moral dimensions of politics (e.g. the rule of law) and society (e.g. equality). Drawing a comparison between the European Union and empires of the past, he advocates a post-national democracy that aims to achieve the sovereignty of citizens rather than that of nations.