Marion Barry Quotes

I know people socially who live in countries where the wealth gap is more extreme than it is in America, and they live with full-time security. They live with the threat of getting kidnapped, or they live with the threat of people invading their homes.

Truly, what the Secret Service did for us is that they saved my dad's life twice.

One time when I played Australia I had a death threat, and they tried to keep it from me, but I found out. They had all this security backstage, outside the dressing room. I said, "What happens when I walk into the spotlight. I'm a target. So I really don't need all this. You guys can go out and sit in the audience. I think you'd be a lot more useful there." If somebody really wants to do you in nothing will stop them. It's proven by John F.Kennedy, the Pope and Ronald Reagan.

I have hired a bodyguard, on the recommendation of my friends and the government. It's outrageous, having to live like this.

I thought the Secret Service would protect me from the press, but they were at my house to protect me from assassins with guns, not with assassins with pencils.

As the Marine One helicopter lifts off from the White House, the Prowler team watches for snipers. The team also responds to any threat that may arise at the White House itself.

Too many of my heroes have been cut down, but do I want security guards? No. I've been offered them in the past. But the more you present yourself as someone afraid of being attacked, the more people see you as someone to attack.

I've been under security protection since 1978.

I can't set one foot out of my house or anywhere in the world without security.

The President can't go around in a steel box, as much as the Secret Service would like him to. Protection is an art form, keeping the President available to the public while protecting. Most of the hard protection is done by the police, the perimeter work.

If you allow thousands or millions of unidentified persons into your house, the risk of... terrorism will significantly increase.

By having the President's name on buildings, that is a potential terrorist target.

Every leader operates under the threat of assassination.

Nice' in a bodyguard is about as useful as the ability to regurgitate whole lobsters.

I want you [Sarah Palin] to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down.

And we're being attacked because of what we do, not because of who we are. And by refusing to talk about that, I'm afraid the American people, at least, don't have a good idea of just how dangerous the threat is that we face.

I was on HPD--Heathcliff Protection Duty--in Wuthering Heights for two years, and believe me, the ProCaths tried everything. I personally saved him from assassination eight times.

I've had death threats, but I've never been fearful for my life. Although I have traveled with security since the '60s.

As far as being in dangerous situations around the world is concerned, I always have a Secret Service detail with me as one of the privileges of a former President.

(Terrorists) are planning to disrupt our democratic process. It's scary I know, but we're not going to let al Qaeda tell us what to do. In fact, our government has decided that if al Qaeda attempts to disrupt our democratic process, we are going to respond by disrupting it first.

I was having coffee with my bodyguard. I didn't expect to be hunting bad guys until later. Leather before sundown is tacky.

I carry a weapon. I got a death threat a few years ago and was really scared. But I don't want bodyguards. I am my own security.

The world is a dangerous place. And it's a more dangerous place than it was seven years ago [before Obama].

There is no external solution to the problem of insecurity.

And y'know what they decided the number one threat was? The destructive and disruptive capability of a small group. That's what they're worried about most... they're terrified of a small group with a committed goal.