Richard Lamm Quotes

Even when you have a big budget, you can't just shoot everything.

The economy of film forces you to make choices.

You can't compromise to keep the film in budget.

Can there not be a limit to the fact that really you need to cut your cloth in accordance with what capabilities and finances you have?

Time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

One of our most difficult realizations was that - in the course of two years - a connecting hub in St. Louis had gone from something we thought we needed to something we could no longer afford.

Frankly, we don't have the resources to go everywhere and do everything.

As Secretary of Defense my job would be much easier if I didn't have to put up with [budget] cuts.

Education policy ... has not been driven by sound educational considerations. It has been driven by the budget process.

We can't spend money on programs just because they sound good... Meals on Wheels sounds great.

Budgets are matters of priority and prioritizing. It's a high priority.

By necessity, budgets require hard choices.

When I was a developer, I couldn't buy a pencil. I had no budget, nothing.

And that's the mistake that was made with Steel Pier. Roger was caught between a rock and hard place. It would have cost a couple of million dollars more to take it to Boston or someplace first. So we opened about a month too early.

The American people need to know that money is being used effectively because frankly, the nation can't afford careless spending, no matter how well-intentioned.

I always think of my films within the context of where aesthetics meet economics. That's the nature of making art - not being naive about what is possible and getting what you need to tell the story you want to tell.

Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

I know each fund has its supporters, and that some will not want to see the surplus go to schools. But, in tough times, you have to set priorities. And our priority is education.

The city has to do what any citizen or family does, when you have a dream. You tighten your belt. You sacrifice some luxuries. Above all, you don't waste a dime.

The United States has consumed in the last 50 years more natural resources than the rest of the entire human race for all of history.

Under no circumstances will I allow expenditures upon works not clearly national.

Budgets are not bottomless pits.

Cost reduction and cost control are by their very nature sort of anti-social activities.

It is a terribly hard job to spend a billion dollars and get your money's worth.