Lee Atwater Quotes

I do not speak frequently or otherwise to the press.

I don't like everybody knowing what I'm doing, unless it's related to a movie. I don't like speaking to the press. I never did.

I am convinced that dealing intelligently with the press is of the greatest importance to the success and effectiveness of a humanitarian mission.

I like chatting with people. If people ask me a direct question, I give them a direct answer and I feel I've always done that with the press.

Being a press secretary is like learning to type: You're hunting and pecking for a while and then you find yourself doing the touch system and don't realize it. You're speaking for the president without ever having to go to him.

I'm not somebody who runs from the press. I'm not coy. I appreciate the press I've had over the years.

The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists.

I don't think it's the role of the prime minister to court the press.

I would say that President Roosevelt probably was more intimately in touch with the press corps at the White House than President Truman was.

My job is to be a spokesman - the spokesman, I suppose - for the President, for the White House, to do the daily briefings, to manage the press corps in terms of travel, day-to-day needs, access, interviews, all those issues.

In politics, you don’t have to love the press; you don’t even have to like the press, but you sure as hell have to feed the press.

In an ideal world, everybody would find it easy to talk to the press... but not everybody is so excited.

When I became majority leader in Washington, I was interviewed constantly. I was always happy to talk to the press, but I drew the line at the Sunday morning talk shows on television. After a full work week consisting of long days and frequent late evenings, I insisted on keeping my weekends free for my family and friends.

Talking to the press, you say things a little differently.

It's not just about the words you use, but the way you use them, and the message that puts over. Also your face too and the way you project your message. If you're telling the group to stay calm, be good, and you have beads of sweat dripping down your forehead, you're in trouble.

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.

I personally have a pretty open philosophy about trying to talk to the press, and so does Dan Bartlett.

Writing and speaking and communicating, it's something important to me, and something I want to get better at.

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.

John Kerry spent the day reading to preschoolers ... and the kids said Kerry actually lacked warmth and failed to articulate a clear message.

Talking to the press is not always good.

For me the most important is on the pitch, I don't like too much speaking in the press. I will do the minimum. I will do it because I have to do it.

I can speak English on the field but it's difficult with media.

I like to talk to media.

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