W. M. L. Jay Quotes

You can make an idea spread for good but you can also make an idea spread for bad and the power to make an idea spread, memetics, you know which now people talk about memes.

I'm a patriot, and I think democracy is the best system available. It's very flawed, but it works better than anything else.

Even modern wars are fought like revenge tales from some petty grievance.

In his life, [Dalton] Trumbo uses wit and comedy to fight these very high-stakes battles.

[Dalton] Trumbo wrote this incredible pamphlet, almost on the level of Tom Paine's 'Common Sense,' called 'The Time of the Toad.' It's an exquisitely written treatise regarding the black list era.

When something so unjust as the black list happened, [Dalton Trumbo] would come to life in a certain way.

[ Dalton Trumbo] always said he fought so many fights, all seemingly different, but all about the concepts of fairness and justice.

Dalton Trumbo was obsessed with justice.

When we did the first sequel [of the Austin Powers] , it was on coattails of the first one doing so well when it was released on video, so we really didn't know what to do with the second plot.

I hope I can now use my ability to communicate, without being too precious or serious. It's good to have some levity, even as you're facing some really dark times, to mix it up a bit.

I do understand the free market, having my economics degree, and if someone on the right had some good ideas, I'm not so dogmatic that I wouldn't listen to them.

I am partisan to some extent on the Democratic side, but I consider myself more of an independent.

[Lyndon Baines ] Johnson is a big and larger-than-life guy, we just tried to give him the dynamic range that he actually had.

Bryan [Cranston] created something completely unique, that was earned by its authenticity. That's what gave us the license to push it a bit.

For Bryan [Cranston ] to go back in time and become this larger-than-life and somewhat theatrical guy, who performed his ideas and rhetoric in public in a melodic and flashy way, was a bit of a risk.

[Dalton] Trumbo himself was a terrible Communist.

It was a way to try and shut down what the unions were negotiating for, like better hours and pay. [Dalton] Trumbo and his friends joined the Communists mostly for these reasons.

From our perspective now, there is a not a huge understanding about the totalitarian Communism that Soviet Russia practiced during the 1950s - it was an atrocious system.

People are willing to throw our civilization under the bus to discredit the existing system, without any proposed solution to the problems that they're willing to pointing at.

People have an actual bias against there being some kind of popularity for political films, and when they get acknowledged, it helps keep the conversation going.

Sometimes you fall in love with some things and then you fall out of love with it.

Dalton Trumbo was constantly criticizing the membership [in the Communist Party], and was opposite to being a loyalist.

That's why we had Louis C.K. portray the harder line Communist, to accuse [Dalton] Trumbo of being a hypocrite.

The first thing we noticed was how flamboyant [Dalton] Trumbo was in real life.

Hedda's Hopper attitude was 'once a Commie, always a Commie.'

John Wayne was never shy about that fervor, but because he was never overly zealous about his politics, and of course his status as a movie, he was embraced by both the right and the left.

To his credit John Wayne was open about it, he even portrayed a member of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in a film called 'Big Jim McClain.'

John Wayne was just a very conservative guy, who had not served in World War II, and he was defensive about that - he almost overcompensated his anti-Communism because of that reason.

Dalton Trumbo actually was [ a hypocrite], because he liked his wealth, which was against the grain of being a Communist. I put title cards at the head of the film that explains the context.

Once you're a public figure, there's a certain amount of privacy you do give up.

There is a difference between being a political force, or a political apparent force or a potential force, and between a real discourse or a real argument.

What is private and what is discussed behind closed doors, you do not have to be instructed at the age of fifty or sixty or forty or whatever to not talk about it outside.

The reason I love being a senator is that I can have whatever thoughts I have, say whatever I want about any subject at any time, and that is a wonderful feeling of freedom, and I cherish that.

Security doesn't rob ambition; the illusion of security robs ambition.

To think of your creations in terms of better or worse- big mistake. They are your children.

People enquire as to the craft behind our art and we reply by making references to a patently childish notion.

These are the routines that originally 'put me on the map' in the magic world.

Ive been making my living with this material for over 15 years.

The pathos of man is that he hungers for personal fulfillment and for a sense of community with others.

From adolescence to death there is something very personal about being a Negro in America.

Besides the vocal warm ups, me and my band have a secret hand shake that we do just to get us all pumped. It's nice.

When I do music I don't do it with a purpose in mind. I just feel like it's a little bit contrived if you try to do something like that. It's got to come organically.

This great American institution [Boy Scouts of America] has come under attack from homosexual activists-who may well set their sights on your church next.

Our enemies, like the Grecian hero, have one vulnerable point. You have not touched it yet. What should have been their element of weakness has been suffered to remain an element of strength.

It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals, and a lot of life in America.

The more Dad and Mom love each other, the more secure their children will feel.

It's hard to sing really well when you're playing an instrument, but it'd be great to try and sing really well and have vocal effects and one drummer on a real drum-kit, and one on an electronic kit.

I can't write - out of all the things it takes to make music, lyrics are the thing I'm by far the shittiest at.

Because I'm always so paranoid about doing corny things, or cheesy things in music, that often I probably don't make as good music as I could if I wasn't stifling it so much.

I can't write story-songs, like I couldn't write a Bob Dylan or Tom Waits song. I can only write whatever weird phrases come into my head, and hope that they're good.