Political Theater Quotes

Politics is just show business for ugly people.

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.

Politics is the entertainment industry for ugly people!

[Politics in America is:] A chess tournament disguised as a circus.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Politics Is the Entertainment Branch of Industry. C-SPAN's coverage of governmental proceedings is wonderful. Caution! Buffoons on the Hill! Wallowing in blabber and spew, regiments of ex-lawyers and used-car salesmen attempt to distract us from the naughty little surprises served up by deregulated corporate America.

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions.

There's an old joke that politics is Hollywood for ugly people. An awful lot of the press coverage about Washington reads like coverage of Hollywood. Madonna is having some spat with Sean Penn. Who cares? And who cares which politician is mad at that politician?

There is no business like show business, Irving Berlin once proclaimed, and thirty years ago he may have been right, but not anymore. Nowadays almost every business is like show business, including politics, which has become more like show business than show business is

My theater has always been a political battle on the stage.

Ronald Reagan plays with fire! He sees the world like the theater.

One of the things I learned in 'Slavs!' is that it's much easier to talk about being gay than it is to talk about being a socialist. People are afraid of socialism, and plays that deal with economics are scarier to them.

Public Congressional Investigation hearings are freak shows.

Talking heads will chatter, argue, and rant on TV and in the houses of Congress but that's all they will do. Weeks and months will go by in which the crowning achievement of Congress may be little more than perhaps passing a bill to declare National Eat Your Spinach Week (sponsored, of course, by the Spinach Growers of America).

There's hearings on everything. They're kabuki theater.

If there were an Oscar for best theatrical performance by a country, Israel would win every year. It's a country based on theater. It's a lunatic state - completely insane.

Politicians don't say no to cameras very often.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close

Like so much of President Obama's decisions over the past six years, this is another photo-op with a compliant press that does not matter and will do little.

When the Senate ceases to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues, the confirmation process takes on an air of vacuity and farce, and the Senate becomes incapable of either properly evaluating nominees or appropriately educating the public.

I've been around politics a long time. I've seen it at its best and its worst, been at so many events, listened to private conversations versus public speaking, understood the game of it, and in many ways the theatrics.

The last thing I will pay attention to is any of the usual Washington back and forth.

I do see myself as an old-fashioned storyteller. But there's always a touch of the political in my plays.

I'm a sort of political person, and I feel that there's a kind of ineradicably political dimension to theater, to all theater, whether it's overtly political or not.

Referring to the 1960 Republican convention where the national ticket was determined well in advance:] The party itself was hyping the conflict to create interest in what otherwise might have been a very dull convention.