David Hare Quotes

Modern political speechwriting is certainly a skill, and one that requires experience and practice to master.

Modern political speechwriting is not a high-minded pursuit for brilliant talents.

No politician has ever been defeated by a speech he didn’t give.

The aim of the sculptor is to convince us that he is a sculptor; the aim of the orator, is to convince us that he is not an orator.

One of your jobs as a speechwriter is to transform the bureaucratic into the poetic.

Selling and telling are two different things. In politics, we sell ideas.

For I must not measure the speech of a statesman to his people by the impression which it leaves in a university professor, but by the effect it exerts on the people. And this alone gives the standard for the speaker's genius.

Speeches are more important in politics than talking points, as a rule, and are better remembered.

With reference to political speeches in political campaigns or with reference to discussions in the Senate, I do no more than make a skeleton outline of the line of argument I wish to pursue. I do not undertake to reduce the speech to manuscript form. Many of my speeches which have been most satisfactory to me I have prepared in a few hours. I think it is quite accurate to say that the manuscript is practically unknown in my speaking. Furthermore, I should say that even the skeleton outline referred to above is generally forgotten after I begin my speech. I try to get the subject and the outline of the subject and the objective thoroughly in my mind, and all the preparations are with a view of doing this rather than with the idea of having something before me to follow.

Some of my constituents let me know, that they would not listen to me on such a dry subject as the welfare of the nation, until they had something to drink, and that I must treat them.

We need a new stump speech.

A candidate for office can have no greater advantage than muddled syntax; no greater liability than a command of language.

Everyone wants a whack at the speech.

Part of politics is redundancy. You just have to repeat things sometimes because not everyone has heard your message.

I must say I'm not very fond of oratory that's so full of energy it hasn't any room for facts.

Churchill has spent the best years of his life preparing impromptu remarks.

Each of the participants [in a Presidential Debate] has a major objective and a minor one, in addition, of course, to appearing presidential. The major one is to get his messages across even if the questions don’t ask for them. The minor one is to avoid seeming unresponsive. That is why you will see the debaters answer some of the questions quickly, leaving time for what the candidate wants to talk about.

Political speeches are a particularly low form of rhetoric.

I'm not good at throwing around rhetoric.

At the Oxford Union I'd never debated before but I gave it a go.

A lot of people ask me, did debating help me as a writer, and I honestly don't know.

It is amazing how soon one becomes accustomed to the sound of ones voice, when forced to repeat a speech five or six times a day. As election day approaches, the size of the crowds grows; they are more responsive and more interested; and one derives a certain exhilaration from that which, only a few weeks before, was intensely painful. This is one possible explanation of unlimited debate in the Senate.

Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren't a little flower somebody sewed on.

If I had interesting things to say, I would have been a speechwriter. I think it gets to musicians' heads a lot of the time. Just because people like your records doesn't mean what you have to say is going to be interesting.

Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear.