Nick Denton Quotes

Sucking up to the biggies won't get us anywhere.

I can't think of anything worse than trying to schmooze someone with the idea that you're an actor.

I don't for one second spend any time thinking about carefully ingratiating myself with someone for the future.

You must ingratiate yourself with those who can help you. Flatter them to their faces. Praise them to others who will carry your words back to them.

My ass is big because a lot of people have to kiss it.

Make friends. Be a leader. Kiss butts if you have to, but if the other guys despise you-you know what I mean?

A slave has but one master; an ambitious man has as many masters as there are people who may be useful in bettering his position.

I won't be making any friends in the corporate suites.

Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt, not swallowed.

Nicey nicey just doesn't do it for me.

Flattery is a kind of bad money, to which our vanity gives us currency.

It was so draining. Going to parties to rub elbows with so-and-so and act like it's no big deal, when really all I was doing was hoping I'd have the success they had.

One may define flattery as a base companionship which is most advantageous to the flatterer.

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our firends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.

I can’t afford to have my Vice President who knows every reporter in town, go around saying we’re all screwed up, so we’re going to keep him happy. You are dealing with a very insecure, sensitive man with a huge ego. I want you to literally kiss his ass from one end of Washington to the other.

You can pander, but you've got to do it in a way that doesn't seem like pandering.

A young man, be his merit what it will, can never raise himself; but must, like the ivy round the oak, twine himself round some man of great power and interest.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite - inspire fear and insecurity.

I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.

Out in Hollywood, you get the feeling when people are talking to you, that they are looking right past you - like they're looking to see who else they can talk to.

I've never been - and never will be - someone who 'plays the game' with people.

I feel like, especially in Hollywood, you meet people with ulterior motives, who are trying to get something from you.

The flatterer easily insinuates himself into the closet, while honest merit stands shivering in the hall or antechamber.

We should always speak what would please the man of whom we expect a favour,like the hunter who sings sweetly when he desires to shoot a deer.

The fawning courtier and the surly squire often mean the same thing,--each his own interest.