Kenneth Lay Quotes

But indeed a market like California is not good for Enron.

In the case of Enron, we balance our positions all the time.

But the most important thing is, Enron did not cause the California crisis.

The collapse of Enron and the subsequent collapse of Arthur Andersen were tremendous tragedies. But as I stated at the time of my indictment on July 8, 2004, failure does not equate to a crime.

I take responsibility for what happened at Enron, both good and bad. But I cannot take responsibility for criminal conduct that I was unaware of.

I mean, our primary businesses in wholesale pipelines, utilities, retail, were all doing extremely well.

But I can't take responsibility for criminal conduct of somebody inside the company.

Aggressive accounting does not mean illegal accounting.

I've not only pursued the American dream, I've achieved it. I suppose we could say the last few years, I've also achieved the American nightmare.

The last thing I would have ever expected to happen to me in my life would be that, in fact, I would be accused of doing something wrong and maybe even something criminal.

I don't fear jail because I know I'm not guilty. I know I did nothing wrong. I did nothing criminal and I also believe my God will get me through this.

There are no accounting issues, no trading issues, no reserve issues, no previously unknown problem issues.

They can't do without electricity. They can do with less electricity.

If there is anything material and we're not reporting it, we'll be breaking the law. We don't break the law.

Investors don't like uncertainty.

We see ourselves as first helping to open up markets to competition.

But certainly I didn't know he was doing anything that was criminal.

Jeff knew full well what he was walking away from. Again, he needed to deal with this right away.

Every market is in transition.

We're (also) looking for a good people person who is able to motivate others and get strong performances out of people.

There are absolutely no problems that had anything to do with Jeff's departure.

Well, rates would go up whether you deregulate or not, and of course, the rates that are going up right now on the electricity side are still within the regulated framework.

You'd rather have a surplus versus a shortage in your position.

I don't think I'm a criminal, number one.

Trillions of dollars every day are being exchanged around the world in all of the financial markets.

Am I a fool? I don't think I'm a fool. But I think I sure was fooled.

We use competitive markets to arrange for delivery of our food supply.

It's been very interesting. We've seen a lot of interesting testimony. We've seen a lot of interesting people, a lot of allegations, a lot of lies, a lot of misinformation and some truth.

Today, there are also buyers and sellers of all these energy commodities, just like there are buyers and sellers of food commodities and many other commodities.

We will cooperate fully with the SEC and look forward to the opportunity to put any concern about these transactions to rest.

When there's uncertainty they always think there's another shoe to fall. There is no other shoe to fall.

The transmission systems are still regulated.

I have to take responsibility for anything that happened within its businesses.

The problems in California have been that it's been very difficult to site and build new power plants.

I have faith in the market when we get the rules right.

I've been a strong financial and political supporter of, first, President Bush Sr. when he was running for president, and even when he ran for president a time or two and failed.