Terence Winter Quotes

'Boardwalk' begins literally on the first day of Prohibition, which I think was a wonderful way to start - to have the story kind of come out of this massive historical phenomenon. And the more I researched the '20s, the more I discovered just how interesting it was.

The Prohibition era is so vividly depicted in 'Lawless.' John Hillcoat does a remarkable job of rooting his film in such a tangible reality.

People have forgotten the effects of prohibition. We have become the United Statesof Amnesia.

I looked back on the roaring Twenties, with its jazz, 'Great Gatsby' and the pre-Code films as a party I had somehow managed to miss.

We advocate the repeal of the 18th Amendment.

The saloon is as dead as slavery.

I was always interested in the 1920s and the gangster world, in general.

Terre Haute. They used to call it 'Terrible Hut' because it was so wide open. Gambling, red light district, speak-easies. I entertained for all the gangsters. Can't name a gangster that didn't come into the place where I worked.

Prohibition? I drink to its health whenever I can.

Prohibition is a hard sounding word, worthless as a rallying cry, hard as a locked door or going to bed without your supper.

When I was growing up in the mid-'50s, the Roaring Twenties were a huge part of the culture. There were a number of films and a bunch of television shows that dealt with the mythology of the underworld from that period.

In fact, the whole thing about prohibition is this: it isn't the initial cost, it's the humidity.

I went to high school with Al Capone.

I love 'Boardwalk Empire.' I really love that world. I love that style. I love all the actors on it.

In the early '20s, with the war over, there was a period of celebration, and you can see it in the fashion.

Prohibition has made nothing but trouble.

Old Americana vintage gangster stuff has a fantastical feel; it feels less dirty in a way. It feels like the opera of crime.

Dancing in speakeasies was a job, and none of us knew for sure who were gangsters. No one told us, so how could we know? My mother used to come and take me home. We thought nothing of walking home together at two in the morning.

If you go back, 'The Great Gatsby' would be a portrait of the rich and fortune made by business.

[Describing Prohibition:] Politicians are ducking, candidates are hedging, the Anti-Saloon League is prospering, people are being poisoned, bootleggers are being enriched, and Government officials are being corrupted.

Prohibition is a Constitutional mandate and I hold it absolutely necessary to give it a fair and thorough trial.

The American people have said that they do not want any liquor sold, and they have said it emphatically by passing almost unanimously the constitutional amendment '

Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it. It's left a trail of graft and slime, It don't prohibit worth a dime, It's filled our land with vice and crime. Nevertheless, we're for it.

Bootleggers were romanticized by people like F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example. Gatsby is a bootlegger. And they were not thought of as evil criminals in the newspapers, either. There was a certain amount of affection for them.

After the war, Prohibition was passed, and with liquor no longer legally available the nation plunged headlong into the Great Depression.