Robert Reich Quotes

The public wants to know that their political leaders will stay true to the promise made to them that Brexit means Brexit.

Some good souls found The Candidate cynical. I wonder what they'll think when they read this portrait of the real-life Jerry Brown... This is the book that could force the little fox into the open.

I think I'm optimistic, yeah, especially in real life, but I think it's funny to be pessimistic.

I'm offering myself up. I'm saying that if I have the background, the capability and the concern to do this and I'm doing this for the right reasons... but I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president. Nowadays, the process has become much more important than I think it used to be.

I think he [Donald Trump] is generally a good person, but you know what? He had no business being president of the United States. If I thought he did, I wouldn't be running. I'd be helping him.

A lot of people want me to run for things, for a lot of high offices. The polls always show that I win any election that I'm in. But I don't have any real interest in running for office. I'm more interested in supporting people.

Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.

You had a majority of Americans saying that [Donald Trump] would take the country in the right direction or I think he would make real change, real change.

I'd like to run for president. Or Prime Minister. I think I could do a better job.

I think Donald Trump showed a real quality that every leader needs, and that's resiliency.

There were 16 people in the race, including a number of governors, and there's only one left. And I think that at the end we have to make sure that we have somebody that can go to that town, change that system, grow employment, change the whole way in which it works and ship power money and influence back to the states. So I'm optimistic about it.

Sarah Palin is an attractive candidate, but based on her background, she only was governor for what, two years. I don't think she passed that test.

I learned early that business is business and politics is politics. The proof is how few important businessmen have made good politicians. They may think that they are very smart about everything because they made millions of dollars by digging a hole in the ground and finding oil, but the talent and luck needed to become rich are not the same talent and luck needed to succeed on Parliament Hill.

I think people have a little wall they throw up real quick if they see swords and sorcery.

People have notions of what a wife's role should be in this process, and it's been a traditional one of blind adoration. My model is a little different - I think most real marriages are.

Most people think that I am too optimistic, but my optimism is based on the thought that negative thinking is a luxury that we can't afford.

I'm telling you, [ real people] are not mad at Al-Qaeda. They are not mad at ISIS. They are not mad at [Omar] Mateen. Mateen is a victim just like they are. They are a victim of this country. These angry, irrational Looney Tunes on social media - be it people who are commenting or originally posting - these people think they're victims of this country, too. They have been taught that!

My diaries were written primarily, I think, not to preserve the experience but to savor it, to make it even more real, more visible and palpable, than in actual life. For in our family an experience was not finished, not truly experienced, unless written down or shared with another.

But the real intent of my writing is not to say, you must think in this way. The real intent is to enrich: here are some of the many important facets of this extraordinary Kosmos; have you thought of including them in your worldview? My work is an attempt to make room in the Kosmos for all the dimensions, levels, domains, waves, memes, modes, individuals, cultures, and so on ad infinitum.

Anything and everything at any given time is sort of the point I think. We're dealing in real situations and that's why we have our handlers there, to hopefully protect us from the bad, but yes; each show I think that sort of thing is going to go down because it's obviously not a perfect system and it's not a perfect world.

I think that the real future of the American party is to bring in working Americans.

I know I have to do the right thing. And the sooner you do the right thing, the better. You get it over with, and you don't have to worry about it anymore. But who does that in real life? Instead, you procrastinate and think about it and put it off and think about it some more until that one little pebble grows into a giant block inside your head.

The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.

In politics, the definition of a real man is different from, I would say, outside Washington or outside the establishment. I don't think that's even arguable. But human nature is what it is, and men (straight men) want women. And it's always a challenge. It's never a piece of cake. You're rejected. You know Woody Allen? One funny thing he really said. Somebody said, "Woody, what has success meant?" He said, "It means being rejected by a higher class of woman." Life is filled with rejection. Men - nobody - women, they don't like rejection.

When I was thinking about what we could do in terms of what production values of Broadway might be able to add to the show, I had this thought that it would be really cool if we had a coup de théâtre. What would they want? And then I was like, an amazing, enormous tuna puppet that was like 30 by 40 feet would be pretty incredible. So I called up Basil Twist, and he got really excited immediately and started sketching out his idea, and I think it's a real highlight of the show.