Press Conferences Quotes

Washington tends to be full of too many traps. I think reporters there do a lot of attending news briefings and news conferences expecting to get the real news out of those relatively sterile environments. But you've got to deal with the obscure people as well as the names.

I can explain this to you, but I cannot comprehend it for you.

I spend a substantial amount of my time endeavoring to fend off questions, and worry terribly that I might end up being too clear.

Of course a lot of the journalists hated Nixon, but they were always blown away by how smart he was.

It’s like a presidential press conference. Information goes in and information goes out, but there is not necessarily a connection between the two.

He can't spend all his time running his mouth; he's got to run the country.

I think you should be able to have a press conference without having reporters key in on certain divisive issues.

I play tough guys in movies and behaved like one in front of the press because I thought that was what a man did.

You can never get your message across if you're always answering their [reporter's] questions.

Theodore Roosevelt owes more to newspapers than any other man of his time, or possibly of any other time.

Usually when reporting on powerful public figures, the press advisor and I would have had a conversation that established what journalists call 'ground rules,' placing restrictions on what can and cannot be reported.

I covered the White House during the Bush years when Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan and Dana Perino were at the podium. We thought those were, at times, crazy press briefings, asking questions about major events like the Iraq War and the leaking of Valerie Plame's name and the outing of her as a CIA operative.

There is an intimacy and trust that is needed between leaders, between their assistants and advisers. Usually, you have the real substance behind closed doors; and the press conferences, you have niceties, nice photo ops.

I give thousands of interviews, and I'm probably about as open as anybody in Washington as far as access goes, so I'll continue to do that.

I'm not afraid of the media. I think I know how to handle them because I've been around them enough.

The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists.

I'm not used to doing press conferences, and I don't like giving interviews.

I've been both a journalist and a politician, and I can tell you it is more fun to ask the questions than have to answer them.

A race without journalists also has one advantage for Max: he does not have to give so many interviews.

If I didn't have to do press, I would not.

I expect to be more specific about how specific we will be in the future.

My seriousness as a politician will be seen from what I speak from a political stage and say in press conferences. If my comic flavor shows there, I cannot be taken as a serious politician.

There is a curious relationship between a candidate and the reporters who cover him. It can be affected by small things like a competent press staff, enough seats, sandwiches and briefings and the ability to understand deadlines.

Being a press secretary is like learning to type: You're hunting and pecking for a while and then you find yourself doing the touch system and don't realize it. You're speaking for the president without ever having to go to him.

I have been in public office and have been criticized. I do not object to it. A public official should be willing to be criticized. An agent of the people of this country should be called to account.