Mike McCurry Quotes

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

Long speeches work if they’re filled with substance.

A campaign appearance is judged much like that of an actor. Is the performance persuasive? Not what is said, and I find that too bad.

In oratory the will must predominate.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

Most speakers speak ten minutes too long.

My purpose in public address and in speech is really encapsulated in three C's: clear, concise, correct. No overblowing rhetoric or anything like that. As simple as possible: clear, concise, correct.

No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.

Are we diminishing the bully pulpit to a pulpit of bull?

It is much better when a member resumes his seat after he has made a speech for the House to have the feeling that they wish he had gone on longer instead of wondering why he did not stop sooner.

In order to make a good speech you must have something to say and you have to believe it.

Regardless of how lyrical or rhetorically gifted they are in conveying big ideas, any candidate can do a good job of giving a speech if the goal of a speech is more than just delivering it well but achieving some end, whether it's convincing people of some issue or persuading them about you as a person.

Talking points are a core set of messages an executive or politician utilizes in communicating with stakeholders. It's a term of art for having an outline of your remarks.

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

The thing that I try to remember is that in the briefing room it's not a debate. I'm not supposed to go in there and win a debate with the press corps. If that's what I try to do, then I'm going to lose.

Trump has a way of driving a message so people hear it.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

If you don't have a good case, and you don't have a good message, then shining a light on it is not going to get you very far.

When I give a speech, I tell it like a story.

I make sure I say something important without being preachy through all my performances.

I want people to hear what I have to say, and I want to be able to get a lot of points across.

I know what to say, how to say it, how to bring profile to the issues I care about and people want to listen to me.

Nobody wants to hear long speeches.

In a world where audiences listen for attitudes rather than arguments or information, speakers must feel the pressure to posture rather than engage.

Churchill's career was littered with oratorical disasters when he misjudged the audience.