I spoke to a million in one service, in Korea, in Seoul. And that was the largest audience I ever have had.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

How can a president not be an actor?

In oratory the will must predominate.

A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

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.

I’m much more comfortable and confident running out on the field in front of 70,000 people instead of standing in front of a camera trying to say some lines. The people who do that as a profession are very talented because it’s certainly not easy.

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!

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

We need to try to unite audiences, unite countries, join musical tastes, unite people.

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

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

What I’ve discovered is that in art, as in music, there’s a lot of truth-and then there’s a lie. The artist is essentially creating his work to make this lie a truth, but he slides it in amongst all the others. The tiny little lie is the moment I live for, my moment. It’s the moment that the audience falls in love.

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

I realised a little bit to my astonishment that I can give a lecture for a thousand people, and there will be this tumultuous applause, so, you know, I have the feeling well, it can’t be all that bad.

None of the films I’ve done was designed for a mass audience, except for ‚Indiana Jones.‘ Nobody in their right mind thought ‚American Graffiti‘ or ‚Star Wars‘ would work.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

Sometimes when you take strong stands, if you’re not called to do it, you’re dividing the audience you’re trying to reach.

Comedy’s about opening up and being unique, but to a point where the audience can relate to what you’re saying.

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.

I’ve always had to conquer fear when I’m on stage. Basically, I was and still am a very shy person. It’s absolutely in conflict with what I do. But once I deliver the first joke I’m okay. It’s like I’m out there all by myself just delivering my lines to nobody in particular without ever trying to notice the audience in front of me.

From my standpoint, being an artist, I want to see what the new construction is between artist and audience.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

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

We don’t want people to leave the stadium until the game finishes.

Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.

When the kids are laughing in the audience, I tear up, I’m so happy I did a nice thing.

When you’re singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It’s happening.

People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I’ll give you an example; I don’t read what’s handed to me. People say, ‚Here, here’s your speech, or here’s an idea for a speech.‘ They’re changed. Trust me.

I didn’t have to win, and winning wasn’t important to me. Being world champion wasn’t important to me. What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

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

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

I write all my sermons.

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

PowerPoint makes us stupid.

When you walk out onstage in front of 65,000 people, it can bring you to tears.

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

They’ve got this crazy actor who’s 82 years old up there in a suit. I was a mayor, and they’re probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.

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.

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

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don’t want to meet them.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.

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 shall make that trip. I shall go to Korea.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

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

I can move any crowd.

I think that if I would talk on a political subject, if I talk about it, it would divide the audience on that issue. That’s not my issue.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don’t read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2’s audience.

I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching.

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

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.

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.

It’s very intense to be in front of a live audience. It’s just an amazing experience. It’s dangerous. Everything out there is heightened. The bad stuff is extra-worse. The silences are extra-silent. The good stuff is amazing. It’s electric when you walk out there. For 90 minutes, you’re on this other planet.

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.

Wherever I go meeting the public… spreading a message of human values, spreading a message of harmony, is the most important thing.

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