Robert Orben Quotes

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?

The secret of writing comedy is to know where it's all going, then get ahead of it.

Humor is the most honest of emotions. Applause for a speech can be insincere, but with humor, if the audience doesn't like it there's no faking it.

I'd be surprised if Ronald Reagan doesn't run again. To us it's a second term. To him it's a double feature.

Nowadays, you cannot be a very Effective political figure without Having a demonstrable sense of humor. People take to it.

Humor gives presidents the chance to be seen as warm, relaxed persons. Humor reaches out and puts its arm around the listener and says, 'I am one of you, I understand,' and implicitly it promises, 'I will do something about your problems.'

The chance to be seen as a warm, witty guy is too good an opportunity for a politician to miss.

As much as we admire all the characteristics of a Ronald Reagan, as soon as something goes wrong, people will hate those same characteristics.

Humor starts like a wildfire, but then continues on, smoldering, smoldering for years.

Anybody with a good sense of humor is one-up on their competition. We respond to somebody who has the ability to make us laugh. It's a bonding influence.

Humor is a marvelous communications tool, as Reagan has demonstrated so well. He has weathered many a storm that others might not have. With Reagan, people just say, 'There he goes again.' A sense of humor allows a president to back off a little from the tensions of the moment and take a calmer view of things.

Very few people ever meet celebrities. All we really know is what we read about them and the most memorable lines are jokes. That's how we tend to define what we think of a public figure.