Al Franken quotes

Al Franken is an American comedian, writer, and former U.S. Senator. Renowned for his work on "Saturday Night Live," he became a prominent voice in political satire before entering politics. He has also written several best-selling books and advocated for progressive causes. Here are 162 of his quotes:

Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. (Al Franken)
The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover. View quote
Al Franken
When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both. View quote
Al Franken
It's easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world. View quote
Al Franken
The point is that there is tremendous hypocrisy among the Christian right. And I think that Christian voters should start looking at global warming and extreme poverty as a religious issue that speaks to the culture of life. View quote
Al Franken
The crash of 2008 was driven in no small part by unfair practices in the mortgage industry, which led to many consumers becoming trapped in loans they didn't understand and couldn't afford. View quote
Al Franken
But in the right-wing media, they do have a right-wing bias. And they also have an agenda. So their agenda is: we're an adjunct of the Republican Party, and we're going push that agenda every day, and, as you say, brand these stories that help further the right-wing cause. View quote
Al Franken
And I think that being able to make people laugh and write a book that's funny makes the information go down a lot easier and it makes it a lot more fun to read, easier to understand, and often stronger. So there's all kinds of advantages to it. View quote
Al Franken
Yeah, but you need an experienced radio veteran who is a liberal advocate. And there just hadn't been any radio that did that. And so they weren't trained - they had developed all these bad habits of being objective and balanced and stuff like that. View quote
Al Franken
I do personal attacks only on people who specialize in personal attacks. View quote
Al Franken
Well, I think that there's a value to comedy in and of itself. (Al Franken)
Yeah, we shot ourselves in the foot right out of the gate. The guy who ran it at first misled pretty much everybody about how much capital we had. He said we had enough to go three years without making money, and we had enough to go three weeks. View quote
Al Franken
We need to be pro-science; we have to go back to science. View quote
Al Franken
The right wing has had a radio apparatus for years and years, so they've had minor leagues - they've had local rightwing guys who've become national rightwing guys, and who build slowly, and that's how it goes. We haven't had that. It isn't like we have a farm team. View quote
Al Franken
I also focus on Bush and his administration - who do a lot of lying - and how a right-wing media has allowed them to get away with a lot of stuff that, in a different media environment, they probably wouldn't be able to get away with. View quote
Al Franken
I don't think I'm an angry person. I think I'm a person who's angry. I'm angry at the Bush administration; I'm angry at the right wing media. And by that I don't mean the media is right wing. I mean, there is a part of the media that's not the mainstream media. That's Fox, that is 'The Wall Street Journal' editorial page. View quote
Al Franken
The thing that interests me least about the radio business is the radio business. But I've had to learn a little bit about it. It's not rocket science: You get ratings, that's good. View quote
Al Franken
Our laws need to reflect the evolution of technology and the changing expectations of American society. This is why the Constitution is often called a "living” document. But we have a long way to go to get our modern privacy laws in line with modern technology. View quote
Al Franken
What I do is taking what they say and using it against them. What I do is jujitsu. View quote
Al Franken
In the United States of America, satire is protected speech, even if the object of the satire doesn't get it. View quote
Al Franken
Well, a lot of politics is communicating with people, and obviously comedy has something to do with that. I've been a producer and led people. Also, being a comedian, you're under pressure. (Al Franken)
Antitrust law isn't about protecting competing businesses from each other, it's about protecting competition itself on behalf of the public. View quote
Al Franken
Veterans report that service dogs help break their isolation. People will often avert their eyes when they see a wounded veteran. But when the veteran has a dog, the same people will come up and say, 'Hi' to pet the dog and then strike up a conversation. View quote
Al Franken
The next thing I am doing is moving back home to Minnesota and getting involved in politics. I'm looking at a run for Senate in 2008, but in the meantime I am focused on knitting together the progressive network in the upper Midwest. View quote
Al Franken
When the president during the campaign said he was against nation building, I didn't realize he meant our nation. View quote
Al Franken