Frank Rich Quotes

• It is kind of tedious after a while, to parse politicians doing the same thing over and over again. The facts change from week to week, but the sort of masquerade doesn't.

  Frank Rich

  Facts, Kind, Politician

  12 Copy quote

• What are Americans still buying? Big Macs,Campbell's soup,Hershey's chocolate and Spam--the four food groups of the apocalypse.

  Frank Rich

  Chocolate, Groups, Four

  "Herbert Hoover Lives" by Frank Rich, www.nytimes.com. January 31, 2009.

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• The most wonderful street in the universe is Broadway. It is a world within itself. High and low, rich and poor, pass along at a rate peculiar to New York, and positively bewildering to a stranger.

  Frank Rich

  New York, Peculiar, World

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• Someday we'll learn the whole story of why George W. Bush brushed off that intelligence briefing of Aug. 6, 2001, 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.' But surely a big distraction was the major speech he was readying for delivery on Aug. 9, his first prime-time address to the nation.

  Frank Rich

  Stories, Addresses, Speech

  "Frank Rich: The Culture Warriors Get Laid Off" by Frank Rich, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 15, 2009.

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• There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht.

  Frank Rich

  Hero, Gay, Rights

  "The Rage Is Not About Health Care". www.nytimes.com. March 27, 2010.

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• When something really comes from the soul, I think it has a truth that you cannot find in politics.

  Frank Rich

  Thinking, Soul, Politics

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• What was most striking about the Obama speech in Berlin was not anything he said so much as the alternative reality it fostered: many American children have never before seen huge crowds turn out abroad to wave American flags instead of burn them.

  Frank Rich

  Children, Reality, Alternatives

  "How Obama Became Acting President". www.nytimes.com. July 27, 2008.

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• The truth is that a lot of plays aren't political at all. In American theater history, political theater has tended to crop up when there's a crisis, a national crisis.

  Frank Rich

  Play, Political, Truth Is

  Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November 26, 2008.

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• While F.D.R. once told Americans that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, Mr. Ashcroft is delighted to play the part of Fear Itself, an assignment in which he lets his imagination run riot.

  Frank Rich

  Running, Play, Imagination

  "The Best Goebbels Of All?". www.nytimes.com. June 27, 2004.

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• The principal House sponsor (of the Defense of Marriage Act), Bob Barr of Georgia has been married three times--which raises the question of why the act doesn't contain a three-strikes-and-you're-out provision.

  Frank Rich

  House, Three, Defense

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• To me, the fun part of both jobs is to always try to push the discussion and debate forward in some way. The most fun part of being a theater critic for the Times was always to try and champion something that maybe other people didn't like, or that was produced under obscure circumstances or had to fight for its life. And I would say in the column what I try to do is in some ways related in that I'm trying to fight for a point of view. I'm not trying to be a kingmaker in either job, and don't want to be, and shouldn't be.

  Frank Rich

  Jobs, Fun, Fighting

  "The MoJo Interview: Frank Rich". Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November 26, 2008.

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• Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those 'good Germans' who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo.

  Frank Rich

  War, Ignorance, Humanity

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• The actor doesn't merely command the stage, he seems to own it by divine right.

  Frank Rich

  Divine Right, Actors, Stage

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• Nation editor Katrina van den Heuvel told me that the failure to adequately cover the Downing Street Memo epitomizes the timidity, the cowardice of a media that has been manipulated, intimidated, bullied by an administration that has taken it to a high level. . lapdog news media.

  Frank Rich

  Taken, Media, Downing Street

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• The only truly shocking thing about last Tuesday's election is that the Democrats didn't do far worse, or as badly as they deserved.

  Frank Rich

  Tuesday, Politics, Lasts

  6 Copy quote

• I grew up in Washington, D.C. But also loving the theater.

  Frank Rich

  Grew Up, Theater, Grew

  4 Copy quote

• Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years.

  Frank Rich

  Years, Moral, Clinton

  "Presented by Starbucks: White House Easter Egg Roll goes online; open to tens of thousands" by Mike Allen, www.politico.com. March 15, 2009.

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• If Obama needs to be criticized, I will criticize him. There's a tremendous amount of excitement about him. And a corollary of that is, as we're learning, from newspapers and magazines that are going into overdrive reprinting Obama editions, etc.

  Frank Rich

  Needs, Magazines, Etc

  Interview with Kiera Butler, www.motherjones.com. November 26, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• One of the most persistent cultural tics of the early 21st century is Americans' reluctance to absorb, let alone prepare for, bad news.

  Frank Rich

  News, Century, Tics

  "What We Don’t Know Will Hurt Us". www.nytimes.com. February 21, 2009.

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• After 9/11, we realized that all these silly culture wars, and arguing about rock lyrics... who cares? You know, we, for some reason, remembered what our real problems are.

  Frank Rich

  Real, War, Stupid

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• I'm always struck by the kids who turn up in New York and LA, and places in between. Chicago. Wanting to do theater, wanting to do independent film. Wanting to break into television or radio.

  Frank Rich

  Break Up, New York, Kids

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• Hollywood no longer depicts reporters in ruthless pursuit of criminals, high and low. Now they are the criminals.

  Frank Rich

  Criminals, Hollywood, Propaganda

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• Yul Brynner's performance in "The King and I," . . . can no longer be regarded as a feat of acting or even endurance. After 30-odd . . . Mr Brynner is, quite simply, The King.

  Frank Rich

  Kings, Acting, Endurance

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• Anything But An Apologist for the Lefties and All of Their Causes.

  Frank Rich

  Lefties, Causes

  52 Copy quote

• There have been at least three other cases in which federal agencies have succeeded in placing fake news reports on television during the Bush presidency. It was a really good tour. It seemed maybe about a week too long.

  Frank Rich

  Fake People, Agency, Long

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