J. D. Souther Quotes

Office politics are bloody-minded, but weak on content.

Gossip is easy, politics is hard.

'Scandal' is great because it's intriguing and sexy, and it has a lot of play with secondary characters in situations, lots of drama.

I couldn't stand the politics in opera.

'Housewives' are a million times cattier than pageant girls! I know pageant girls have a reputation for being catty, but 'Housewives' are even cattier. But I do think that it's a total different world, and it can't compare.

Watching 'Scandal' is a fun and exciting guilty pleasure, which is how I imagine most real scandals start out.

Politics—where they pat you on the back so they'll know where to stick the knife.

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy

A fuel of discontent and anxiety is probably pretty central to the fuel at 'Scandal!'

'The Godfather' is a great movie, but it gives them too much credit. What you don't see is what really takes place: the in-fighting, the lying to each other, the scheming against each other to get power.

'Game of Thrones' is fundamentally based on a Machiavellian, almost Jacobean, idea of power and intrigue.

I said, "Do you think she thinks it's me?" Jas said, "Well, it's pretty conclusive, isn't it? She said 'the most sniveling idiot I have ever come across.'" I said, "I didn't know that YOU have been seeing Masimo. Tom the Slug King is going to be very upset.

If you look at Shakespeare's history plays, what the setting of monarchy allows is this extraordinary intensification of emotions and predicament.

I'm sitting in my home office wearing a bathrobe. The same way I'm not going to start wearing ties, I'm also not going to buy into the fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords.

I'm not consumed with political machinations.

Shakespeare is all big themes, like the most amazing love, or the most scary war.

That's my curse, I see the politics within these things and so I don't say yes to them.

'The Ides of March' was a fairly cynical film.

I don't necessarily want to know what people are saying when I'm not around, especially if it's about me. I just don't need to hear extra garbage.

Shakespeare wrote about love. I write about love. Shakespeare wrote about gang warfare, family feuds and revenge. I write about all the same things.

If you ignore the murdering and the conniving, Francis Underwood is an effective politician.

I really like playing the bad guy. There are so many more objectives to play when you're mad or villainesque, or when there's some agenda that you have. That's drama, that's where the heart lives. I love playing the bad guy, but especially the bad guy who's still with the girl.

It's particularly hard to take being stabbed in the back close to home. There's always a feeling of betrayal when people of your own group oppose you.

Now on 'Bachelor Pad' it is true colors - no best foot forward anymore, everybody is really themselves.

We are all familiar with Lebanon and with the intrigues of its leaders. Collaboration flows in their veins, and treachery thrives in their midst.