Amal Clooney Quotes

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

I understand how to deliver a message, that's my skill.

I thoroughly believe that any man who's got anything worthwhile to say will be heard if he only says it often enough.

I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.

In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?

I'm an orator, a raconteur.

I am convinced that great ideas that are powerfully presented can change a mind in five minutes.

Being a comfortable public speaker, which involves easily being able to go off-script, strongly signals competence.

Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy.

Learn the art of the pitch and of messaging.

A man may lack everything but tact and conviction and still be a forcible speaker; but without these nothing will avail... Fluency, grace, logical order, and the like, are merely the decorative surface of oratory.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

In order to make a good speech you must have something to say and you have to believe it.

Political speeches are a particularly low form of rhetoric.

If you want to be an orator, first get your great cause.

Regardless of how lyrical or rhetorically gifted they are in conveying big ideas, any candidate can do a good job of giving a speech if the goal of a speech is more than just delivering it well but achieving some end, whether it's convincing people of some issue or persuading them about you as a person.

I know what to say, how to say it, how to bring profile to the issues I care about and people want to listen to me.

In a world where audiences listen for attitudes rather than arguments or information, speakers must feel the pressure to posture rather than engage.

If you want to convey a message, you must do so in an enjoyable format.

Learning how to communicate to big audiences, and how to frame a message in a way that works in a sound-bite world, that for me is very challenging.

There are lots of similarities between being a writer and a lawyer: to tell a story to a jury, hold their attention, make them laugh, make them like you. But what makes being a barrister less satisfying than being a writer is, finally, that it's about what someone else wants you to say.

I don't completely understand why people in Aspen want to hear what I have to say.

I think that no one, or very few, are born as good presenters. It's a skill that you learn. The key is the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides given in 20 minutes using no font smaller than 30 points. If people just adhered to this rule, they would double or triple the quality of their presentations.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

Talking points are a core set of messages an executive or politician utilizes in communicating with stakeholders. It's a term of art for having an outline of your remarks.