Former Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that she was taking a break from political office after decades, telling Stephen Colbert, the host of “The Late Show,” that the American political system was broken.

Ms. Harris told Mr. Colbert that she wanted to travel the country to talk to Americans as a private citizen. It was her first interview since she left office on Jan. 20 after losing the election to Donald J. Trump.

The interview came days after she announced she would not run in the California governor’s race next year. Ms. Harris, who was California’s attorney general and also represented it in the U.S. Senate, had been exploring a run for the state’s top office after returning home to Los Angeles in January.

She also discussed what would be in “107 Days,” her upcoming memoir about her experience running for president last year that she had announced hours earlier. She said it would talk about how intense and short the campaign was after President Biden abruptly stepped down as the Democratic nominee last summer, leaving her less than four months to campaign.

Mr. Colbert asked her if the reason she wouldn’t run in California was because she was going to run for a different office. She said no.

“For now, I don’t want to go back in the system,” she said. “I want to travel the country, I want to listen to people, I want to talk with people, and I don’t want it to be transactional, where I’m asking for their vote.”