Somehow politicians have become convinced that negative campaigning pays off in elections.
I’ve always tried to avoid politics because most politicians that I know are quite dirty in terms of human dignity, ethics and morals.
Musicians can run this state better than politicians. We won’t get a lot done in the mornings, but we’ll work late and be honest.
What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don’t speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don’t get the rhetoric right. I think that’s a fair trade-off.
The majority of the members of the Irish parliament are professional politicians, in the sense that otherwise they would not be given jobs minding mice at crossroads.
There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I’ve spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it’s very flattering to be in their company. But you also end up in the company of people you don’t admire, including some rather dodgy politicians.
I would be open about the fact that, clearly, politicians should be able to speak to each other. David Cameron doesn’t seem to accept this, but if the British people have voted then of course you have to try and provide good stable government.
Politicians want people to be nice neighbours, but the tools at their disposal are just the tools of modern liberal society, which are nothing.
Politicians are no different than the rest of the public.
Some people are born gardeners, some are politicians. I was an actor. It took a great deal of pain before I figured that out. I didn’t relate to most of it.
I guess it feels to me that the political argument that has been lost in my lifetime is taxation. How do you engage in that debate when people don’t trust politicians at all? It is almost impossible to start a conversation about taxation.
Our generals talk a good game about taking care of their grunts, and the majority of our Beltway politicians bay with moralistic fervor about how they, too, support the troops.
The destructiveness of the tar sands is not inevitable. But Canadians and Albertans have become too tolerant of the politicians who compromise the nation’s energy security as well as the next generation’s future.
I think politicians who suggest they are uninterested in the support of newspapers are not being straight with people.
I’m inclined to think that, because it’s such an awful life, that politicians do go into it for the best reasons. I mean, some may love the sound of their own voice. But it’s such a wearying life, you’ve got to be impelled by some desire to leave the world a better place than when you came into it.
What matters is that the majority of American people have become complacent in a senseless injustice that occurs all around them. What matters is that most American politicians have become more easily swayed by money than by the people who voted them into office.
Society and the system and politicians don’t want people to be aware of things. They want people to believe what they have to show ’em.
Well, I’m not that popular with the politicians, I have to say.
You know, larger-than-life politicians have larger-than-life strengths and larger-than-life weaknesses.
The central thesis of the American failure in Afghanistan – the one you’ll hear from politicians and pundits and even scholars – was succinctly propounded by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage: ‘The war in Iraq drained resources from Afghanistan before things were under control’.
I manage my business; politicians are doing their business. I can only work within their rules and regulations. I can’t pick up a political fight.
Democratic politicians have disliked things I’ve written, Republican politicians… if they all love you, you might as well be driving a Good Humor truck.
We should look back now and then. Our politicians should look back every now and then.
Whether we or our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.
One reason citizens, politicians and university donors sometimes lack confidence in the social sciences is that social scientists too often miss the chance to declare victory and move on to new frontiers.
All politicians are to some extent salesmen.
I think people feel threatened by homosexuality. The problem isn’t about gay people, the problem is about the attitude towards gay people. People think that all gays are Hannibal Lecters. But gay people are sons and daughters, politicians and doctors, American heroes and daughters of American heroes.
There is one rule for politicians all over the world: Don’t say in Power what you say in opposition; if you do, you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.
