Jon Voight Quotes

Your personality as the prime minister feeds through to what you emphasise, and what you don't, how you'll handle a situation - whether you've got the combination of intelligence or instincts to adapt and to make good decisions.

There are two jobs. There is being an actor, and there is being a celebrity. Some people are really good at both. Some people are really good celebrities and terrible actors, and some people are really good actors and terrible celebrities. Hopefully, I am a really good actor and an OK celebrity.

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.

I always tell people this: to be a savvy politician or a good head of state and to be charitable are not mutually exclusive things.

Through his mastery of storytelling techniques, he has managed to separate his character, in the public mind, from his actions as president. He has, in short, mesmerized us with that steady gaze.

What this White House really needs is a chief of staff who can read Machiavelli in the original Italian.

Obama has figured out the best method to prepare the way for his verbal Houdini acts: Use political noise as the tune-up din before the aria. Perhaps his body temperature is so low, it sometimes takes him too long to break out the song.

A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.

It's almost as if Putin is brilliant, really - he's outfoxing Obama all the time.

Ronald Reagan had a kind of shallow movie-star charisma - a combination of makeup and the skill of a good actor - but it wasn't the real thing, and was something that he could turn off when the cameras weren't running.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

From time to time, one imagined Bill Clinton had charisma, but it never really was more than an occasional false glare.

I think when the cameras are on him is when Coach Switzer is at his best.

I think Haig will be foolish, but perhaps not quite as foolish as Kissinger was, because Haig doesn't have the education Kissinger had. Haig is a little more dangerous because, I fear, he believes what he says, whereas I never got that impression from Kissinger.

Theodore Roosevelt, when he was out of office, he would do things to draw attention. But when you are president, you don't need to shout. When you are in office, you are the story.

I had ministers who were just outstandingly good.

I know that Donald Trump is a smart man.

Reagan conspired in the underestimation of his own ability.

Throughout my football career, I've always been somebody who's been very aware, and I know when the camera is on me, and I know how to be polished. I can see how that might come off as disingenuous.

The making of the Barack Obama franchise far exceeded the skill set of Washington's best. In fact, the recipe for Mr. Obama's global popularity can be attributed less to political minds and chance than to the enduring power of Hollywood.

How Donald Trump has come so far with so few words - how he even managed to keep up conversationally with all those beauty queens - is a question I don't expect ever to be solved.

I hear from people all the time and it infuriates me that 'President Obama's a brilliant politician.' No he absolutely is not.

With its emphasis on star power, the Obama campaign from Day One emphasized the candidate's perfectly cut presidential presence.

He may not have been a good actor, and I personally don't think he was a good president, but I'll tell you this: Ronald Reagan was a helluva character.

One point about understanding Donald Trump is that he is always representing something which has only a casual connection to what he actually is.