Speech Preparation Quotes

I'm going to make a long speech because I've not had the time to prepare a short one.

Then there was a maiden speech, so inaudible that it was doubted whether, after all, the young orator really did lose his virginity.

I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.

If you want me to speak for two minutes, it will take me three weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for thirty minutes, it will take me a week to prepare. If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.

The bully pulpit is not an open microphone. You have to target it very carefully.

Obama has figured out the best method to prepare the way for his verbal Houdini acts: Use political noise as the tune-up din before the aria. Perhaps his body temperature is so low, it sometimes takes him too long to break out the song.

My early years as a 'speaker' involved note cards that shook like a leaf while I held them because I was so nervous.

it makes a great difference to a speaker whether he has something to say, or has to say something.

Always, with speeches, I feel like it's an opportunity to say something.

I have spoken to expert audiences occasionally, but then no audience is expert over the whole range of things I want to explore.

The greatest and truest models for all oratorsis Demosthenes. One who has not studied deeply and constantly all the great speeches of the great Athenian, is not prepared to speak in public. Only as the constant companion of Demosthenes, Burke, Fox, Canning and Webster, can we hope to become orators.

I wonder what my speech would be.

I had a bad experience doing public speaking at school. I had to talk about a pen for five minutes and it was really hard work. I couldn't wait to get off the stage.

I did my first speech when I was 17, well, my first formal speech. So I've had time to deal with it, and to adjust to it, but I can't say I'm like gung-ho on public speaking or interviews for that matter.

I've never given a speech without being terrified first.

Most speakers speak ten minutes too long.

English is the perfect language for preachers because it allows you to talk until you think of what to say.

No man not inspired can make a good speech without preparation.

When you make speeches you elicit expectations against which you will be held accountable.

The President [Barack Obama] is very focused on [healthcare]. He, of course, is also writing this speech at high speed. And right coming up until the speech, he is convinced that a full plan, letter and verse of what the administration wants, will be released.

When I gave a talk at TEDx, I thought that if I did a good job, the video might go viral.

I've never presented. The logistics of that is a challenge.

Getting up in front of an audience is my biggest motivation.

When I give a speech, I tell it like a story.

With reference to political speeches in political campaigns or with reference to discussions in the Senate, I do no more than make a skeleton outline of the line of argument I wish to pursue. I do not undertake to reduce the speech to manuscript form. Many of my speeches which have been most satisfactory to me I have prepared in a few hours. I think it is quite accurate to say that the manuscript is practically unknown in my speaking. Furthermore, I should say that even the skeleton outline referred to above is generally forgotten after I begin my speech. I try to get the subject and the outline of the subject and the objective thoroughly in my mind, and all the preparations are with a view of doing this rather than with the idea of having something before me to follow.