Top 100 Sorkin's Quotes

#1. I'm not sophisticated when it comes to politics, when it comes to journalism.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #41093
#2. Presidents don't make new friends. That's why they've got to keep their old ones. Adm. Fitzwallace

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #44813
#3. Live your life as if it was written by Aaron Sorkin

Jonah Bergan

Sorkin's Quotes #57028
#4. I've always thought that there is a great female James Bond movie to be done. I'm not literally calling her Jane Bond, I mean, but a female secret agent.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #59269
#5. I'm not interested in the difference between good and bad, I'm interested in the differences between good and great.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #63681
#6. I don't claim to be some Aaron Sorkin expert, but it is like a Camelot. His shows are a place where people are trying to reach their highest potential. And I think we miss that sometimes. If I got a chance to do 'The Newsroom,' I would have done it yesterday.

Dule Hill

Sorkin's Quotes #66176
#7. Aaron Sorkin was completely unable to understand the actual psychology of Mark or of Facebook. He can't conceive of a world where social status or getting laid or, for that matter, doing drugs, is not the most important thing.

Marc Andreessen

Sorkin's Quotes #69380
#8. Wall Street is littered with clever plans to use financial instruments to change behavior - carbon trading, for example. Some have changed the world, and others failed miserably.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #70486
#9. I have all of the Apple products. Everything I've ever written, I've written on a Mac. My first computer, my roommates and I chipped in, and we got that first Macintosh - 128K. It had as much memory as a greeting card that plays music.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #91644
#10. For better or worse, I have a lot of vaudeville circus skills that you just can't showcase in Aaron Sorkin's work.

Joshua Malina

Sorkin's Quotes #104235
#11. There's a great tradition in storytelling that's thousands of years old, telling stories about kings and their palaces, and that's really what I wanted to do.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #104801
#12. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #106756
#13. Oratory should raise your heart rate. Oratory should blow the doors off the place.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #108910
#14. First scenes are super-important to me. I'll spend months and months pacing and climbing the walls trying to come up with the first scene. I drive for hours on the freeway.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #121110
#15. I get nervous before openings or premieres or when someone's reading a new script, and I get nervous when my daughter isn't in my immediate field of vision.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #121777
#16. I have a big problem with people who glamorize dumbness and demonize education and intellect. And I'm giving a pretty good description of Sarah Palin right now.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #165996
#17. Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world, it's the only thing that ever has.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #172397
#18. The real problem with all drugs is that they work. Fantastically. They're great, right up until the moment they kill you.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #179449
#19. I'm probably a believer in abandoning too-big-to-fail firms or breaking them up in some way so that the system can try to take care of itself. I imagine you're not going to get there, and therefore, I suspect regulation is what's going to be required.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #189125
#20. There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups ... but they're coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #191643
#21. Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Civility, respect, kindness, character.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #198670
#22. I do not diminish the incredible symbolic importance of a black man getting elected president. But my euphoria was a smart guy getting elected president. Maybe for the first time in my lifetime we had elected one of the thousand smartest Americans president.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #199146
#23. The downside to series television is that the schedule is ferocious. It constantly feels like you have a midterm due that you haven't started yet.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #205964
#24. Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #217383
#25. If I get an idea for a series that I really like, I'm sure I won't be able to resist coming back and doing it.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #228621
#26. It's the people who have an incentive to find the problem who usually find the problem.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #237133
#27. In truth, a leader should either apologize, mean it and do something about it - or not apologize at all.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #263837
#28. Conflict, when used as a device, makes for good television and bad journalism.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #270474
#29. While the financial crisis destroyed careers and reputations, and left many more bruised and battered, it also left the survivors with a genuine sense of invulnerability at having made it back from the brink. Still missing in the current environment is a genuine sense of humility.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #281630
#30. The only answer to terror is an excess of democracy.

Michael Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #319916
#31. I have a lot of respect for people who are great at ad-libbing and for writers and directors who are able to create a scene in which that works. Judd Apatow is fantastic at it. But as an audience member, I like the sound of something that's been written - I like it to sound written.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #323285
#32. People who don't know anything tend to make up fake rules, the real rules being considerably more difficult to learn.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #325036
#33. As an audience member, I like the sound of something that's been written - I like it to sound written. And then, of course, you can't do it without the musicians who can play it.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #335167
#34. My resting pulse as a writer is writing idealistically and romantically; aspirationally. My taste lies in quixotic heroes.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #342387
#35. I think Aaron Sorkin is like Shakespeare. When you go through it, there is a rhythm and clues all over the place of how it should be played.

Chris Messina

Sorkin's Quotes #343825
#36. I think that if I couldn't write, I would be unemployable.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #352444
#37. I've got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not a germaphobe: it's all about a fresh start.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #360459
#38. If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.
(Isaac Jaffe, Sports Night)

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #364811
#39. I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #385079
#40. That's a very real feeling - that I don't have a story to tell. I'm not a pure storyteller. I have a tough time with story.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #394749
#41. What's interesting, is that I've found that the more accomplished a director is, the more secure they are in giving direction that sounds incredibly unsophisticated.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #437300
#42. By now, it seems as if everyone has already read Thomas L. Friedman's 'The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.' It changed the way we think about global business, competitiveness and the implication for far-flung economies, governments, education and more.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #445032
#43. There's that process of writing it - then you come out of your room into the sunlight, and you now have to complete the circuit and make the connection finally with the audience.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #460750
#44. It's nice that HBO is in business with the audience and not with the advertisers. There's a difference.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #462575
#45. Everyone thinks Goldman is so fucking smart," he railed. "Just because Goldman says this is the right valuation, you shouldn't assume it's correct just because Goldman said it. My brother works at Goldman, and he's an idiot!

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #527814
#46. I like to say good dialogue is a million times easier to memorize than bad dialogue - difficult good dialogue, even if it's difficult. Aaron Sorkin dialogue is easier to memorize, even though it's wildly complicated.

Jesse Bradford

Sorkin's Quotes #614936
#47. If I am writing a movie and I am stuck, I can call the studio and tell them it's delayed. You can't do that with television - you have air dates to meet.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #739375
#48. But HBO is less interested in how many people are watching than in how much the people who are watching are liking the show. They didn't set up their business model to make writers happy. It's just a nice unintended consequence.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #754043
#49. I think it's up to writers to write stuff that is compelling enough that people want to watch.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #775337
#50. It's important to remember that, first and foremost, if not only, this is entertainment. 'The West Wing' isn't meant to be good for you.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #777386
#51. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor. I was acting in all the school plays. I went to school for acting. I was really sure that that's what I wanted to do.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #777981
#52. Film doesn't have to worry. Movies are awesome. There's no war going on, theaters aren't going to lose.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #790750
#53. Whether it's 'The West Wing' or anything else, my first thought is always, 'What's a good story?'

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #814879
#54. Heroes in drama are people who try hard to reach a virtuous ideal. And whether they succeed or fail really doesn't matter - it's the trying that counts.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #820005
#55. I don't believe there are two sides to every argument. I think the facts are the center. And watching the news abandon the facts in favor of 'fairness' is what's troubling to me.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #860036
#56. Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #882027
#57. I think it's great when writers get recognition; it doesn't happen very often. I just don't want that writer to be me. Let it be Aaron Sorkin or, you know, somebody good.

Diablo Cody

Sorkin's Quotes #902354
#58. Television is a visual medium. You have to create some kind of visual interest. And it's entertainment for your eyes.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #903101
#59. Humans know when it's not a good story. Unless you do this for a living, you may not know exactly why you don't like a story, but you can't fool an audience ever. They know when you have it and they know when you don't.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #923343
#60. There really isn't a story that you can't tell inside of it. It's very much a clearinghouse for anything that goes on in the world. So you're not at all limited.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #940707
#61. I desperately need the love of complete strangers. That's one reason I overtip. I love when skycaps, waiters, and valets are happy to see me.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1096932
#62. You're going to fall down, but the world doesn't care how many times you fall down, as long as it's one fewer than the numbers of times you get back up.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1111317
#63. Here's the perversity of Wall Street's psychology: The more Wall Street is convinced that Washington will act rationally and raise the debt ceiling, most likely at the 11th hour, the less pressure there will be on lawmakers to reach an agreement. That will make it more likely a deal isn't reached.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1141152
#64. As long as you keep one foot in the real world while the other foot's in a fairy tale, that fairy tale is going to seem kind of attainable.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1156216
#65. She's a person; the doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1170059
#66. 'Steve Jobs' is my seventh movie. I believe, if you added them up, I don't think there is more than a total of 10 minutes that takes place in a person's home. They're all in offices, courtrooms, laboratories, things like that.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1190359
#67. Josh: So, Toby, it's election night. What do you say about a country that goes out of its way to protect even those citizens that try to destroy it?
Toby: God bless America.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1231255
#68. What if lawmakers never spoke to their constituents? Oddly enough, that's exactly how corporate America operates. Shareholders vote for directors, but the directors rarely, if ever, communicate with them.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1257334
#69. The rules are all in a sixty-four-page pamphlet by Aristotle called 'Poetics.' It was written almost three thousand years ago, but I promise you, if something is wrong with what you're writing, you've probably broken one of Aristotle's rules.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1268327
#70. I can't remember my dreams more than a couple of seconds after I wake up. It's frustrating because sometimes I dream that I'm watching a really good movie.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1277307
#71. 'Molly's Game' was a true story about a remarkable young woman named Molly Bloom. She was this close to going to the Olympics; she was ranked third in North America in women's moguls.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1303062
#72. The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1308576
#73. With a television series, there's a hard deadline, and so you have to write even when you're not writing well.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1329040
#74. It's one thing to be asked to respect someone else's religion. It's another to be asked to respect their taboos.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1356803
#75. By and large, the mission of any ghost is to offer humility. They point out what's important by mocking what is not.
(Joshua Malina, Sports Night)

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1361067
#76. I am all for everyone having a voice; I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1435320
#77. It's an election year. We would prefer that voters didn't use common sense.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1454885
#78. I don't want to put words in Geithner's mouth, but I think he is generally against the revolving door of government officials taking jobs with companies that they have overseen or in roles that involve lobbying. At minimum, I'm pretty sure he felt that way about himself.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1455277
#79. Honestly, I don't try to guess at what most people want. I don't think I'd guess right, and I just think that that's not a good recipe for storytelling. I try to write what I like, what I think my friends would like.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1460007
#80. I'll get cast occasionally as sort of the jerk version of myself, and I have fun doing that. But it's really better for everyone if I stay behind the camera.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1473472
#81. An artist's job is to captivate ... if we stumble into truth, we got lucky.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1487543
#82. Toby Zeigler: There's literally no one in the world I don't hate right now.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1506896
#83. My training really was at the 'New York Times,' you know. When I got there, I was literally supposed to stay there for five weeks, and I got lucky like nobody, you know, like nobody's business.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1553291
#84. I think you tell the story that has to be told. You tell the story that's the truth. You tell the story that readers will be interested in and should know about.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1605486
#85. When I was starting out, William Goldman took me under his wing, and he's still the person I show pages to.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1622086
#86. When I create a TV show, it's so that I can write it. I'm not an empire builder; my writing staff is usually a combination of two kinds of people - experts in the world the show is set in, and young writers who will not be unhappy if they're not writing scripts.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1635723
#87. Every creator sets up their world differently. That's what's so amazing about someone like Aaron Sorkin and his writing.

Lesli Linka Glatter

Sorkin's Quotes #1646847
#88. Elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1692874
#89. Liberals could live their whole lives never having to hear an actual conservative opinion other than the idiotic arguments written for conservative characters on Aaron Sorkin's little teleplays.

Ann Coulter

Sorkin's Quotes #1707419
#90. The ethos on Wall Street has not changed, and that's not going to come from the corner office. That's going to come, for better or worse, from Washington, and the whole idea of greed is still good, that is still pervasive.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1715725
#91. Aaron Sorkin is why people hate liberals. He's a smug, condescending know-it-all who isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

Alex Pareene

Sorkin's Quotes #1721372
#92. There's a good argument to be made that companies that are private, where they're run by partnerships, where everybody has true stake in them and they're not playing with other people's money, that by default it's a safer system, because you really have skin in the game. You really own the company.

Andrew Ross Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1733576
#93. Everybody knows Aaron Sorkin's scripts. There's a huge amount of lines. There's a huge amount of interchange. You gotta do a lot of learning to be able to get it up to pace.

Danny Boyle

Sorkin's Quotes #1742550
#94. I do not speak through my characters; it's not a ventriloquist act.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1750997
#95. I grew up in the theatre. It's where I got my start. Writing a television drama with theatrical dialogue about the theatre is beyond perfection.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1761103
#96. President Bartlet:
There's a delegation of cardiologists having their pictures taken in the Blue Room. You wouldn't think you could find a group of people more arrogant than the fifteen of us, but there they are, right upstairs in the Blue Room.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1770003
#97. It's populated by people who, by and large, have terrific communication skills. Every day is an extraordinary day. For me, it was just a great area for storytelling.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1831861
#98. I had a lot of survival jobs. One was for the Witty Ditty singing-telegram company. I was in the red-and-white stripes with the straw boater hat and kazoo. Balloons. Even when you're sleeping on a friend's couch, you have to pay some kind of rent.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1847948
#99. I've never met anyone who has said, "My goal is to make America mediocre." That's a kind of hard-right conservative fallacy.

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1853094
#100. When I feel that something I'm writing is going well, everything in my life is good and the things in my life that aren't good are completely manageable. If it's not going well, Miss America could be standing there in a swimsuit handing me a nobel price and I wouldn't be happy about it

Aaron Sorkin

Sorkin's Quotes #1875083

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