Upamanyu Chatterjee Quotes

The government’s role is to motivate the private sector, to assure that it performs in a way which serves the public interest.

So I went into government with a clear mind about what the problems were, and what needed to be done.

I think, people who remain in the political sphere as opposed to going into the private sector, really what they're looking at is how in some ways the compensation is power. How do you place a price tag on the ability to affect millions of people's lives? How do you place a price tag on the ability to determine the rules by which all of us play?

Government can have both a heart and a head.

Our system does not know how to bring strength and intellect into the front rank of politics and government...

I didn't have any idea what politics was like. I was surprised at how difficult it is to get something done. In the private world, if I have an idea, I just do it.

Lacking a profit motive, workers in the government by and large have a different work ethic from those in private industry. When they could make one call, federal workers take a meeting. When they could find an answer on the Internet, they form a study committee. Instead of appointing one supervisor, they appoint five.

I think I would rather be a prime minister than a taxi driver.

I think I can regard myself as a political decision-maker.

It's so sad to see how few people in the Obama administration have any private sector experience.

In government you carry each hope; each disillusion. And in politics it's always about the next challenge.

We just put General Motors in the hands of people who can't even run our own government.

There's nothing to be said for opposition. You can only talk about things and you can lay your plans. You can't actually achieve very much; you have to be in government for that.

The private sector is motivated by profit and efficiency and the US government often is not.

Politics doesn't matter, policy does.

Government is about hard choices.

There are many similarities between government and business, but they are not the same.

Governments are not like a business. They don’t look like a business, work like a business, think like a business, and they don’t have a bottom line.

Government is not the enemy. Government is simply a tool that can be used wisely or unwisely.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

Government has much wider dimensions than merely managing an economy.

Politics determine who has the power, not who has the truth.

The government playing entrepreneur is not a good role for the government.

In government, you're not a writer, you're an administrator.

I've had quite a long time in government, and I've learned a few things.