James Carville
I think that America will not trust a party to defend America that isn't willing to defend itself.Collection: Trust
Politics is a messy business, but campaigning prepares you for governing. It prepares you to get hit, stand strong, and, if necessary, hit back.Collection: Politics
I was against gay marriage until I realized I didn't have to get one.Collection: Marriage
I know a bit about selling books, and you need a good title - a catchy concoction with a little Cajun spice, something that will make folks stop in the aisles, turn away from the Grisham novels and the latest crazy diet fad, and pick up your masterpiece.Collection: Diet
As Mike Tyson says, everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. The one thing we know about American presidential politics is you're going to get hit in the mouth.Collection: Politics
Democratic strategists and operatives should not design a strategy based off today's conditions. They should be setting a strategy for where the trajectory of polling is headed.Collection: Design
I've had enough of the blowhards on cable TV and the self-righteous anger I hear from people whose only accomplishment in life is their ability to turn the dial on an AM radio.Collection: Anger
When you become famous, being famous becomes your profession.Collection: Famous
Like a lot of people, I pray for a sick relative or that kind of thing, but I don't pray to make my next flight connection at the airport. I find prayers before sports contests to be insensitive and kind of demeaning, at least when someone prays to beat the other team or something like that.Collection: Sports
My dad was actually a college boxer at L.S.U. and a good one, too. He was the captain of the boxing team.Collection: Dad
We should not run away from religious teachings. We should run to them.Collection: Teacher
Drag a $100 bill through a trailer camp and there's no telling what you will find.
The only person that ever stumbles is a guy moving forward. You don't stumble backwards; you stumble forward, and you never stumble when you're stationary. So don't worry about stumbling. Keep pushing it forward.
Sometimes the right thing gets done for the wrong reason and sometimes, unfortunately, the wrong thing gets done for the right reason.
Ideologies aren't all that important. What's important is psychology.
If a statesman is one who looks to the next generation and a politician one who looks to the next election, a political consultant must be one who looks to the next tracking poll.
You have to have sharp elbows if you want to change something.
When George W. Bush was president, his daddy was raising money for the Bush library. I thought that was fine. When Bob Dole was Majority Leader, Elizabeth Dole was the president of American Red Cross. I didn't say anything.
During my time as a political strategist, one of the most vexing problems was figuring out why so many people vote against their perceived interests.
My mother, Ms. Nippy Carville, was a woman of many talents.
I think the Democratic Party has the chronic problem of appearing to be weak, of not standing and fighting for what it believes in, not fighting for its own.
The thing I love about politics and sports is that there is an end goal - winning - and there are indeed winners and losers.
Some comments are within bounds, while some are not. But by whining about every little barb, candidates are trying to win the election through a war of staff resignation attrition, and Americans are losing the ability to distinguish between what is fair game and what is not.
I grew up in a French-dominated Catholic part of the country. I was an altar boy. I went to Catholic school. I have a cousin who is a priest - it's part of my DNA. It's kind of hard to separate me from the church, to try to say where one starts and the other stops.
Over the course of history, governments, political regimes, and leaders have done some stupid things despite all arguments to the contrary, at times even against their own self-interest.
I would describe myself as having a healthy income, but I sure wouldn't describe the son of a postmaster and an encyclopedia saleswoman as upper class, by any stretch of the imagination. I would describe myself as decidedly middle class. I think I'm extremely fortunate.
I tell my students that the single most powerful thing that we have in this country - something that literally harbors no dissent and no questioning - is the all-powerful elite narrative.
It's our heritage: we Democrats, we dream a lot.
Conservatives literally view it as a kind of a weakness to talk to people other than their own. Nothing would bore me more than to sit around talking and listening to a bunch of liberals all day.
But I'd rather not predict. I'd rather affect.
I think Ralph Nader is the biggest liar in American politics when he said it didn't matter who was president.
When I was wrong about the 2002 elections, I dumped a garbage can on my head. When my John Kerry prediction didn't pan out in 2004, I smashed an egg on my face.
The only thing I'm running for is the state line.
One of my favorite aspects of basketball is good passing.
I love young people. I identify with them. It never was a goal of mine to grow up.
I've worked on enough campaigns to know that the most aggrieved candidate rarely emerges victorious.
If you didn't have some sense of idealism, then what is there to sustain you?
When you dehumanize a group, there's lasting consequences because they know that they're being dehumanized.
Every day Catholics prove that you can be a good Catholic and a good Democrat and have a different position from the Church on abortion.
Some of these people think the universe is five thousand years old, and they say it with a straight face. If somebody had an explanation saying why they thought the earth was five thousand years old, there's only two possible explanations: you're really stupid, or you're really cynical and trying to get really stupid people's votes.
Cajuns eat Italian on Sundays.
My blood's not red or blue - it's brown.
When I was sixteen, I borrowed a copy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from the mobile library. Democrats and Republicans were standing for very different principles, and I could see which side was going to represent me.
I always find it offensive when people say God showers riches on you if you're good.
To be a contrarian, you've got to be a contrarian against your own people.
The 1980 Republican presidential contest might have been as good a roster of candidates as ever fielded by any party.
Democrats cluster in cities, and Republicans don't.
The teachings of the Church line up more with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.
We say there are people who have worked in campaigns who say that they have lost some - and we call those folks operatives, managers, strategists, consultants; and then there are people who work in campaigns and say that they have never lost, and we call them liars.
No one will ever accuse James Carville of taking himself seriously.