Hubert Humphrey Quotes

word thrower … phrase maker

The curse of speech writing is being part of a team.

When you're writing, you're putting thought into what you want to express, and then you come up with it - it comes to you. When you're improvising, it's the same thing. You're writing. You just say it out loud right then, instead of saying, 'You think this might work?'

Always, with speeches, I feel like it's an opportunity to say something.

Basically I started to jot notes, lots of faxes back and forth to my writer, we faxed ideas throughout the whole first draft, and started all over again.

If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.

I'm not an outliner. I come up with a premise and then take it from there.

If you can talk, you can write.

I get an idea about something. I just start thinking about it, and then I get onstage and I talk about it, and then I think about it some more and talk about it some more, and think about it some more and talk about it some more, until it starts to take a shape.

I enjoy my public speaking. That's what I love doing. It's what I'm good at.

Everyone wants a whack at the speech.

Eloquence is the essential thing in a speech, not information.

Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum.

I happen to have given lots of free speeches.

I wanted the audience to write stories and then read them out if they wanted to. It's always the best part of the show because people are so imaginative.

And, of course, there were some times when I had writer's block and I had a hard time figuring out how to express what I wanted to express.

Storytelling is really at the root of everything that I do.

I'm not the kind of comic who would try stuff on Twitter, because I have to work up ideas and I can only do that in front of people.

I don't really outline. I just kind of know where I'm going in my head, so I'll write and discover it for myself. Or I'll just write an entire episode and throw it out because I land on an idea and realize that's where I should jump off from.

If you're ever struggling for something to say, just take a noun and verbalize it. Using simple words in new and interesting ways will creativize your presence.

Personally there is first: imagination; second: the act of writing - and third: the act/act of vocalizing.

I always wanted to tell stories and act.

I like to jot down ideas on the back of envelopes and to recognise the potential value in small things. I also like the freedom to think without feeling compelled to write too early. Stories are often better if we can hold back and get to know the characters and the sounds of language.

I'm more of a writer than an actor, and I used to say that I'm mostly an improviser, though I haven't improvised in awhile.

I never dreamed that the little ditties I wrote about annoying customers or bagel recipes would turn into a full-length musical comedy. But a very wise person told me to 'write what you know'. So I did.