Margarita Simonyan Quotes

How is it that the country that invented Hollywood and Madison Avenue allowed such a destructive and parodied image of itself to become the intellectual coin of the realm overseas?

Entertainment is one of America's greatest exports. And the stories that we tell about people inform the world about how to think about people.

It's not enough to say that the Olympics is an athletic contest outside of politics, because it's not. The Chinese clearly are using the Olympics to recreate how they are viewed in the world and how they view themselves.

China is starting an English-speaking television network around the world, Russia is, Al Jazeera. And the BBC is cutting back on its many language services around the world.

The image of a country is not just about economic and military strength. The soft face of a country also makes a difference. Sports are one such soft power which can capture the world's attention to India.

Art and mass entertainment and propaganda, they can all be plotted on the same graph, but there is a difference.

We want to assist China's soft power; we want to develop a vibrant young cinema in China. The average American has no understanding whatsoever of China. We'd like to create a young generation to tell their stories on a world stage. We can make history as well as make money.

In today's world, America's soft power is commonly thought to reside in the global popularity of Hollywood movies, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Starbucks.

America's biggest export is media and I think that's a positive thing.

I think it is important to help our country's image outside of Spain.

The whole world loves American movies, blue jeans, jazz and rock and roll. It is probably a better way to get to know our country than by what politicians or airline commercials represent.

The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the 'Voice of America' and the Fulbright scholarships. But, the fact is, in fact, that probably Hollywood and MTV and McDonalds have done more for American soft power around the world than any specifically government activity.

Developments in information technology and globalised media mean that the most powerful military in the history of the world can lose a war, not on the battlefield of dust and blood, but on the battlefield of world opinion.

Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq to 9/11, certainly, but also from Coke to jeans. It is entirely possible for people around the world to love American products, American books, American movies, American music, and dislike the policies of the government of America.

Even some of us who make movies underestimate their influence abroad. American movies sell American culture. Foreigners want to see American movies. But that's also why so many foreign governments and groups object to them.

Hollywood ... proved a more reliable, cost-effective means of securing world domination than any nuclear arsenal or diplomatic d’marche.

The coming of age of Canadian culture may not depend on our ability to protect it at home, but to project it on the world’s stage.

America had one idea attached to its brand. We presented ourselves as the world's last superpower. And that was the world's worst branding idea.

A nation’s literature is the expression of a nation's mind in writing and the concentration of intellect for the purpose of spreading itself abroad and multiplying its energy

America's international broadcasters are an important part of the face we present to the world.

If you think of human experience as a pie, then the wedge Hollywood is reflecting now is getting smaller and smaller.

Not a single story on 'BBC World News' is any different from the British foreign policy.

We, as a culture, use television as at least one of the great arbiters of truth. Even though we know it's fiction, when we see it portrayed, we believe it. We recognize it as part of our culture.

Yes, the Obama administration has and will continue to use Hollywood and the entertainment industry to push its agenda.

We had everything from the BBC on our TV, so British drama seems very close to home.