I go onstage and I talk, and I remember what I’m saying, and I track it.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

When I was a kid, I never did funny things to get attention. I was never a funny person. I was never, like, ‚Oh, wow. I could say this some day on stage.‘

My dad was into the 1950s doo-wop era. If you look at those groups, or at James Brown, Jackie Wilson and the Temptations in the 1960s, you’ll see you had to be sharp onstage.

I have never talked publicly or privately about the Jewish people, including conversations with President Nixon, except in the most positive terms.

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

Very rarely do I talk off the top of my head on stage. I’m not an improv guy. I’m a writer-guy who presents what he’s written.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

When it comes to knowing what to say, to charm, I always had it.

No matter how much you rehearse on that stage, once you add 30,000 screaming people with flashing cameras into the equation, it’s pretty intense.

When I was younger and did a stand-up gig, it would take me two weeks to recover. Sometimes I’d get so panicked that I would stutter.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

I’m not very articulate.

I always said that I wouldn’t use a teleprompter, and if I start to sing real flat, I’ll hang it up.

I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, ‚If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.‘

I don’t do meetings.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

To the audience, it’s like I’m changing the subject every five seconds, but to me, my show’s almost like a 90-minute song that I know exactly. I wrote every note, and I know exactly where everything is.

If you get something right, you really feel it, right in your chest, on stage. I think it’s an incomparable experience.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it’s Mr. Vice President, because that is who he is.

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

In my opinion, the only way to conquer stage fright is to get up on stage and play. Every time you play another show, it gets better and better.

When Caroline Kennedy managed to say ‚you know‘ more than 200 times in an interview with the New York ‚Daily News,‘ and on 130 occasions while talking to ‚The New York Times‘ during her uninspired attempt to become a hereditary senator, she proved, among other things, that she was (a) middle-aged and (b) middle class.

I’m mortified to be on the stage, but then again, it’s the only place where I’m happy.

I’ve had the honor of speaking at many commencements.

I liked school, but I used to dread those moments when the teacher would call me up to give an oral report. I forced myself to deal with it and not dwell on the class in front of me – to keep a straight face, give the report and concentrate on getting it right. That’s normally how I perform. That’s how I am.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

I was always taught not to answer no questions. I’m not really good at answering them because I get agitated so fast.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

I don’t think there is a single social issue I haven’t spoken on.

I write all my sermons.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

So when I speak in front of thousands, tens of thousands of people, I don’t really get nervous because I know what I want to say and I know what message I want to give.

Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it’s always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.

Resist the need to be ‚right‘ all the time or to always have the last word.

You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he’s showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it’s confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be there.

You can disagree without being disagreeable.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

I’ve spent too much time giving speeches, traveling the world.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

I really think that there was a great advantage in many ways to being a woman. I think we are a lot better at personal relationships, and then have the capability obviously of telling it like it is when it’s necessary.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

When I speak at my local church, which I try to do 35 to 40 times a year, I try in every lesson to take the Old Testament text or New Testament text and apply them to what is happening to me or how that applies to the audience that I’m teaching in a modern, fast-changing, technological world. I use headlines, interfaith and that sort of thing.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

My act is an exaggeration of a part of me. I’m much more expressive off stage.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.