“If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”

Those who made the decisions with imperfect knowledge will be judged in hindsight by those with considerably more information at their disposal and time for reflection.

Know that the amount of criticism you receive may correlate somewhat to the amount of publicity you receive.

Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.

First rule of politics: you can’t win unless you’re on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.

Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.

There are known knowns, things we know that we know; and there are known unknowns, things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we do not know we don’t know.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers – they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

Agreement can always be reached by increasing the generality of the conclusion; when this is done, the form is generally preserved but only the illusion of policy is created.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.

Presidential leadership needn’t always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.

Politics is human beings; it’s addition rather than subtraction.

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

With the press there is no ‘off the record.’

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

You make movies for the people. If critics happen to like them too, well, that’s a home run.

I’m a perfectionist. I’m very critical, especially artistically.

No matter how much you’re going to be criticized or no matter how big of a risk it is, the boldness is the thing that helps you.

The aim of critique is not the ends of man or of reason but in the end the Overman, the overcome, overtaken man. The point of critique is not justification but a different way of feeling: another sensibility.

I don’t care what critics and other people think.

When I’m writing, I’m locking myself in a room. I’m the worst critic in the world. I write something and then I beat myself up. I’m like “Vin, you’re retarded, that makes no sense.”

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I’m my own most vicious critic. So I’m always trying to do it better.

Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited.