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Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.
I'm a human being, just like everybody else. I'm up some days and down others. Some days, I just refuse comment. If I'm feeling a little down, I won't say anything. But if I'm really up, I'll let it all hang out. I do have a slight propensity to put my foot in my mouth.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1983
Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.
Look, I'm a very good thinker, but I sometimes grab the wrong word. I say something I didn't think through adequately. I mean, I don't type my speeches, then sit up there and read them off the teleprompter, you know. I wing it.
TED TURNER, The Guardian, Jun. 17, 2002
There's a fine line between being colorful and being an asshole, and I hope I'm still just colorful.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1978
I don’t measure success in numbers, but I consider my contributions of more than $1.3 billion to various causes over the years to be one of my proudest accomplishments and the best investment I’ve ever made. Those dollars have improved lives, saved species, fought disease, educated children, inspired change, challenged ideas and opened minds; at the time of my death, virtually all of my wealth will have gone to charity.
TED TURNER, Alliance Magazine, Oct. 2010
Jesus Christ would have been considered just another long-haired hippie freak if he hadn't been crucified. The folks weren't impressed with healing the sick, feeding the multitudes bread and fish or anything else, except maybe the walking on water. But when he got crucified, that gave him his big start.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1978
I've made a lot of programming decisions this same way ... I look around to see what the competition is running, figure out whose tastes aren't being met, and provide them with an alternative. From watching the competition I believed that most of what the networks were airing was garbage, full of gratuitous violence, sex, and stupidity. Knowing how quickly TV viewership was growing, it troubled me to see how much junk people were watching. With limited choices and so much poor programming, I felt that a station like ours could compete if we offered something that was more wholesome. I concluded that the great old TV shows could compete against new, crummy ones and for years that became a guiding principle for how we programmed the station.
If people get all the sex they can handle, they're so happy and content they just sit around and smile. I mean, you never feel aggressive just after you've gotten laid, right? Lots of sex for everybody, that's a solution to the world's problems.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1978
Right now, aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorising each other? It looks to me like they're both doing it. When the Brits retaliated for the Germans, for the, awwww, Krauts ... for the Nazis bombing London by bombing Berlin, weren't you both terrorising each other? The rich and the powerful, they don't need to resort to terrorism ... The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers; that's all they have. The Israelis ... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism.
TED TURNER, The Guardian, Jun. 17, 2002
Looking back, if I had to live my life over, there are things I would do differently, but the one thing I would not change is my charitable giving. I’m particularly thankful for my father’s advice to set goals so high that they can’t possibly be achieved during a lifetime and to give help where help is needed most. That inspiration keeps me energized and eager to keep working hard every day on giving back and making the world a better place for generations to come.
TED TURNER, Alliance Magazine, Oct. 2010
I'm a millionaire, I guess, but I'm just a normal person and I like everybody, taxi drivers, whoever you are, to call me by my first name and talk to me on a man-to-man basis. I think the garbage collector is as important as the goddamned president.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1978
Where's the upside in opening your mouth?
TED TURNER, The Guardian, Jun. 17, 2002
I've got a virtually limitless supply of bullshit.
TED TURNER, Playboy, Aug. 1978
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