Frank Abagnale Quotes

#1. When people ask me about being portrayed onscreen by Leonardo DiCaprio, I always say, 'I love it - no matter how old I get, people are going to think that's what I look like.'

Frank Abagnale

#2. What I did in my youth is hundreds of times easier today. Technology breeds crime.

Frank Abagnale

#3. If you believe you have a foolproof system, you've failed to take into consideration the creativity of fools.

Frank Abagnale

#4. Why do the Yankees always win? The other team can't stop looking at the pinstripes.

Frank Abagnale

#5. I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies. I partied in every capital in Europe and basked on all the world's most famous beaches.

Frank Abagnale

#6. If you happen to tell me where you were born, your date of birth and that kind of information, then I'm 98 percent of the way to stealing your identity.

Frank Abagnale

#7. I made a lot of exits through side doors, down fire escapes or over rooftops. I abandoned more wardrobes in the course of five years than most men acquire in a lifetime. I was slipperier than a buttered escargot.

Frank Abagnale

#8. Remember what being an adult is: It has nothing to do with money or awards

Frank Abagnale

#9. I don't use a debit card. The safest thing is a credit card because you're using the bank's money. If someone accesses your information, they are stealing the bank's money, not yours.

Frank Abagnale

#10. What bothered me most was their lack of style. I learned early that class is universally admired. Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved.

Frank Abagnale

#11. Whether you're earning $7 an hour or $700,000 a year, it's very important to protect your credit rating.

Frank Abagnale

#12. Most people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but when I look back at my life, I don't think very much about those years. I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.

Frank Abagnale

#13. I use a shredder for bank statements and phone bills. Most people use ribbon shredders that cut things straight: we can put those back together in an hour. Look for a security microcut shredder, which cuts papers into confetti.

Frank Abagnale

#14. Banks are so protected from liability they would have to really do something that was their mistake in order for them to be liable for it. Banks don't look at signatures. They're processing millions of checks and they have very little liability.

Frank Abagnale

#15. The front of a cheque alone gives someone enough information to steal your identity.

Frank Abagnale

#16. A real man loves his wife, and places his family as the most important thing in life. Nothing has brought me more peace and content in life than simply being a good husband and father.

Frank Abagnale

#17. Dear dad, you always told me that an honest man has nothing to fear, so I'm trying my best not to be afraid.

Frank Abagnale

#18. The police can't protect consumers. People need to be more aware and educated about identity theft. You need to be a little bit wiser, a little bit smarter and there's nothing wrong with being skeptical. We live in a time when if you make it easy for someone to steal from you, someone will.

Frank Abagnale

#19. The Internet is a wonderful thing, but it opens the door to many crimes, so you have to stay ahead of it.

Frank Abagnale

#20. Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop technology to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.

Frank Abagnale

#21. I was always in the right place at the right time, always willing to take advantage of an opportunity.

Frank Abagnale

#22. If my forgeries looked as bad as the CBS documents, it would have been 'Catch Me In Two Days'.

Frank Abagnale

#23. It's amazing to me that we live in such a wonderful country where anyone can have a problem in life and get up, dust themselves off and start all over again.

Frank Abagnale

#24. I was just a guy who ran away from home at 16 because my parents were getting a divorce and the judge was making me choose which parent to live with. I didn't want to make that choice. I ended up in New York City.

Frank Abagnale

#25. The biggest thing that concerns me is when we start getting countries using cybercrime to shut down infrastructure, electricity, communications systems, the Internet, et cetera.

Frank Abagnale

#26. My proudest moment was probably when my oldest boy finished law school and went on to become an FBI agent. It was just beyond my imagination that - with my background - my own son would become an FBI agent.

Frank Abagnale

#27. In the old days, a con man would be good looking, suave, well dressed, well spoken and presented themselves real well. Those days are gone because it's not necessary. The people committing these crimes are doing them from hundreds of miles away.

Frank Abagnale

#28. When 'Catch Me If You Can' was published back in 1980, I never dreamed that it would become a bestseller, much less a major motion picture and now a big Broadway musical. What's amazing about the book is that it has never gone out of print.

Frank Abagnale

#29. I think my wife understood from the day I met her how important she was to me and how important it was for me becoming a husband and a father.

Frank Abagnale

#30. Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.

Frank Abagnale

#31. It's not what a man has but what a man is that's important.

Frank Abagnale

#32. I'm a true believer that you have a moral obligation to keep your employees honest, and that is why you have controls, so I'm never tempted or put in a position where I could do something to defraud my employer.

Frank Abagnale