George Packer Quotes

When the United States media is paying attention, that's when you're really representing your country.

Politics should not interfere with sports. And sports should impact politics.

I hate it when politics play too large part in the sport.

Big sporting events and spectacles might give the national morale a shot in the arm, but they are too transient and taste-specific to stand as robust symbols of nationhood.

Tony Awards boost Broadway attendance and sell the shows on the road. They're the sugar to swat the fly. If you needed more explanation for the yearly ballyhoo, in the metropolitan areas where a Broadway show plays, the local economy is boosted by three and a half times the gross ticket sales. So when we're talking Tonys, we're talking moolah.

The World Cup is not just a great global sporting event, it is also inscribed with much deeper cultural and political importance.

It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

Summoning artists to participate In the august occasions of the state Seems something artists ought to celebrate A golden age of poetry and power Of which this noonday's the beginning hour.

The Nobel Prize is very important in all domains; it is obvious that every Iranian must be proud to know that another Iranian, especially an Iranian woman, got this Prize.

I support the French team - I go to all their matches - but I don't want to use sport for politics. That's not good for sport or for politics.

America is so much more 'show business.' For instance, you have Barack Obama. We have Fredrik Reinfeldt. Everyone in the world knows Barack Obama!

The 2012 Olympics is a fantastic incentive for everyone to help leave a sporting legacy and show that Britain is truly a great sporting nation.

I always wanted to write a book about a common food that becomes a commercial commodity and therefore becomes economically important and therefore becomes politically important and culturally important. That whole process is very interesting to me. And salt seemed to me the best example of that, partly because it's universal.

I will try hard to win more medals for the country and make India proud.

I want to thank the public, so I have to keep doing what I do, which is keep winning medals for my country.

When you are suddenly standing in front of a bunch of journalists being asked what it's like being a British Olympic legend, it's a bit much to take in.

Every time I step out there in the Octagon, I aim to do Australia proud. And this isn't for popularity or a fan base; it has never been for that. It's just because I love my country, and I want to show the world what we're doing down here.

When I did win the Tour, I felt I was feted more in the U.K. for being an Olympic gold medallist... Then I come back to Europe to race, and they're not interested in the Olympic gold; it's about being the winner of the Tour de France - here he is.

Brazil doesn't get a lot of gold medals, so whenever I get a chance, everybody expects me to win, and to get second is a big disappointment.

The Lisbon hub is important to Portugal, the country. That's not going to go away. It needs to be there. The country depends on tourism.

Photography today is accomplishing a lofty mission in which every German should collaborate by buying a camera. The German people is ahead of every other in the technical domain and, thanks to its exceptional qualities, the small camera has conquered the whole world... Much is at stake here from the point of view of popular consumer goods and, furthermore, photography has a particularly important political role to play. (Addressing the Berlin Photography Fair, 1933)

We are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence.

There is something very powerful about German music. That's why I chose German music with a European meaning for the day of my election.

Sport has the power to inspire and unite people. In Africa, soccer enjoys great popularity and has a particular place in the hearts of people. That is why it is so important that the FIFA World Cup will, for the first time ever, be hosted on the African continent in 2010. We feel privileged and humbled that South Africa has been given this singular honour of being the African host country.