"All human creations can and should be told as stories. Not the stories of statistics and data, but stories of people: who we are, what we do to each other. And governments, in the same way should be interested in the people. Only when we have stories that unite political leaders and ordinary citizens, then there will be a mature relationship between these two categories, honest and fruitful." This is the way Michael Dobbs, author of the cult series House of Cards, reflects on the importance of storytelling, giving it a key role in the present and the future of the society in which we live.

On the stage of the ICS Europe 2014, where he was one of the main speakers together with Spike Lee, Michael Dobbs has stressed the need for a more direct relationship between citizens and Institutions, and indicated storytelling as a facilitator of this preferred approach: "Europe and its culture - said Dobbs - are the best story that has ever been told. Our task is to continue to tell it. "And Dobbs himself, during his speech, has become the protagonist of a story. It was  a characteristic anecdote addressed to the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, that attracted the attention of various newspapers including Il Corriere, The Huffington Post and Sky.

In an interview on the sidelines of the summit, Michael Dobbs also points out that the stories when they highlight the human and ordinary side of their characters, become universal, "Why House of Cards is a hit in China? Not because people are interested in the details on the US Congress, but because they identify themselves with the characters: the world's leaders are shown as human beings there."

When asked about a possible comparison with Shakespeare, Dobbs has finally commented, with his perfect British understatement: "If I could achieve even a tenth of the ability of Shakespeare to put people in touch with ideas, cultures and historical periods so different from their own, then I would have made a great achievement. "