Phil Hellmuth Quotes

As long as my face is on page one, I don't care what they say about me on page seventeen.

I've got a reputation for doing a certain type of film: lads' movies that glamorise violence. The more my reputation as a bad boy grows, the more my life moves away from that.

I have lived through the days when John F. Kennedy was a fascist. So it didn't come as a great surprise when some people learned that I was a fascist.

Some people think I'm a terrible radical, but really I'm not so very dangerous at all.

One of my favorite poker shows on television is 'Poker After Dark.'

Actually, the original nickname that I was told - it scared me to death - was Heavy G. I think the last thing you want to be known as is Heavy anything. No offense to Heavy D - rest his soul. Worked for him, wasn't really my bag.

Being a public figure, you cannot make everyone happy. Some people will criticise your actions, and I cannot stop expressing my opinion based on that.

I never thought of myself as a particularly controversial figure.

Models are interested in me, mostly because of my 'bad boy of poker' image.

Contrary to what some people may believe, I'm not a troublemaker.

People have a good image of me. It's not these tramps who are going to tarnish my image. They should stop lying to the French people. It annoys me that people talk about 'your image'. My image is great in France. When I'm abroad, I don't even talk about it. But in France it's just these people, these parasites.

He had the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.

Your reputation is what people say about you. Your character is what God and your wife know about you.

I mean maybe I was holding all the aces, but what was the game?

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be, receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.

You can't control the way people are going to describe you.

You get to a certain point, especially if you're a comedian, where people think certain things. It's like, I don't take the time to explain it to people, it's just part of what I do.

Perception is reality. If you are perceived to be something, you might as well be it because that's the truth in people's minds.

What is "poker"? A card game where abler liars take money off less able liars.

Your take on things is what is either going to make you somebody people talk about or no.

This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

Take care of your reputation. It's your most valuable asset.

They say that I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with. And they say that like it's a bad thing.

It's funny how something so normal and mundane that you see every day-your body-can be controversial. The shock value is intense. It's like carrying an art piece around with you all the time.