Roy Cohn Quotes

You don't need a foreign policy expert to tell you empty threats and hollow promises don't work. Ask any parent of a rebellious teenager. If you don't make good on the threats, you're asking for worse behavior next time.

If you threaten force, you better be ready to use it.

If you draw [red] lines and then don't respect them, you diminish your credibility.

I will have you removed if you don't stop. I have a little system of my own.

Empty threats are often worse than saying nothing at all. It's like leading from behind. Eventually, no one thinks you're leading at all. And after a while, no one is even listening.

When you have real power you don't threaten. People know what your capabilities are.

Don't make a threat and then not do it.

You can't do anything if a person says no. In such a case, there's nothing you can do - unlike the popular cliche that pressure is exerted, or that maybe an unwilling source is done away with.

Unless you’re prepared to use force, it’s very difficult to deal with a person who understands only force.

It’s better to negotiate with a soft voice and a loaded gun, than to negotiate with just a soft voice.

There’s no reason to respect anyone’s word in that part of the world. The only thing they respect is force and the threat of force.

Telling a man to go to hell and making him go are two different propositions.

Our sword must not be made of wood ... we must follow up on our threats if our demands are not obeyed.

Never tell anyone to go to hell unless you can make 'em go.

Shot me twice. I want my name, or I'm going to start charging you a fee every time I field something for you. And it's going to be expensive. I'm Park Place. Bud-dy." His red, goat-slitted eyes squinted at me from over his smoked glasses. "You're more like Oriental Avenue right now, dove. What are you on?

I can't let it pass when you say: "You are the weak party." No, I am not the weak party. I am the man who is making the war. I am the man who is making the peace.

I do not deal with threats and ultimatums.

Everybody will give you a certain amount of respect just because you're the boss' daughter. But if you don't follow through, you lose that pretty quick.

Weakness is provocative.

Sometimes I am the 'philosophical professor, or I can do the voice like thunder if necessary... or if I want to keep the lads on their toes I might sit back and give them a thousand-yard stare.

It's not everybody that can handle firing Denzel Washington or coming to blows and saying, 'This is what's happening because I said so.' Usually, it's the reverse.

Guys would always start by saying, 'You ain't going to get nothing today, Sharpe!' And I'd say, 'Know what? Don't be surprised if your name is on the waiver wire tomorrow. It could have been prevented. But you wanted to go there. So now when you see your name on the wire, you'll know who put it there.'

Xavier McDaniel made me respect him. I thought I could do anything I wanted to. He grabbed me one time and almost choked me out. He said, 'You're going to do this. You're going to go get coffee. You're going to go get doughnuts.' It's a game of respect.

Drew never argues with me because I carry very heavy power tools all the time.

As a woman, sometimes when I am in discussion with a director or producer, there is some kind of a different politics happening. Basically, 'I know more than you'. I am always on the lookout for that. I don't want to get sucked into that. I am very quick to respond to that.