Beau Willimon quotes

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality. (Beau Willimon)
When you have both parties who will not find ways to compromise, who won't meet in the middle, you have paralysis. It's the perversion of idealism. View quote
Beau Willimon
Is self-interest a bad thing? We want our leaders to be pure and good, but at the same time we want them to be effective, and to be effective you often have to be ruthless and not bound by ideology or the same morals that we pretend to hold ourselves to. View quote
Beau Willimon
It's a rough and tumble game whenever power is involved - people's ambitions, their desires, their competitive spirit will often push them to play outside the rules. It's dramatic, it's interesting, and I think it's something we can all identify with to a degree. View quote
Beau Willimon
In politics, it's very theatrical. There's a lot of stage craft. The campaign is trying to tell a story that they want people to believe in, and candidates are playing the role, like actors, by a creative personae that people will be attracted to. View quote
Beau Willimon
My jobs on campaigns were pretty low on the totem pole - I was an advance man. View quote
Beau Willimon
At home I mostly stick to online Scrabble, or chess or Risk - games I find far less addictive than the spectacular games created for consoles these days. But, whenever I get the chance I head over to my friend Kyri's house to play his PS3. View quote
Beau Willimon
I refuse to buy a PS3 or Xbox for my home for fear that it might ruin my life. I think I would cease to accomplish anything productive, would quickly dispense with all human contact, and would very well end up with a nasty case of arthritis in my over-used digits from constant gameplay. View quote
Beau Willimon
The fact that slavery is written into the Constitution is about as entrenched a form of classism as you could possibly imagine. View quote
Beau Willimon
A lot of people have asked me whether I am a cynic or take a cynical view of politics and are often surprised when I say that I consider myself an optimist, but an optimist dressed in the robes of a realist. View quote
Beau Willimon
This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want them to be bastions of moral integrity, perfect people, saints. And on the other hand, we want them to be effective leaders. (Beau Willimon)
You just have to re-wire your brain when you're shifting from the stage to the screen or the silver screen or the HD flat screen. View quote
Beau Willimon
Film is much more visual, a scene is typically a lot shorter, you're dealing with a lot more characters, a lot more locations, and you're able to rely on things that you just can never do on the stage. View quote
Beau Willimon
In the best possible scenario, whenever you get notes from people, they're good notes, and they see things that you wouldn't have seen otherwise, and they make you a better writer. View quote
Beau Willimon
If you really think that ambition, power, lust, desire are not as applicable in the media as in politics or on Wall Street or anywhere else, you're deluding yourself. View quote
Beau Willimon
I don't think that Washington is a fundamentally bad or corrupt place. View quote
Beau Willimon
In Washington, if you're a congressman or a senator or the President, you make much more money than the average American, but you'd think that if you were the leader of the free world you'd be making major bank, and you don't. View quote
Beau Willimon
We all experience power struggles in our lives - at the workplace, with our friends, in our love lives. In a way, we're all politicians. View quote
Beau Willimon