Jack Valenti Quotes

No one today knows what is indecent.

It is called the First Amendment. ...Simple words marching in seried ranks. Compact, concise. To the point. Clear and pure. It's freedom's music.

If movies are causing moral decay, then crime ought to be going up, but crime is going down.

A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.

Foreign capital to build new cinemas will help modernize China's aging cinema infrastructure, attract Chinese consumers back into cinemas, and increase demand for U.S. films.

To many Congressmen and Senators right now, there's a ceaseless antagonism toward Hollywood because politically, it is high-reward and low-risk. So when you can't do anything about poverty or the budget deficit, and you can't deal with Bosnia or the possibility of nuclear explosions in Russia, what do you do? You bash Hollywood and get on the front pages.

There is no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you. That's not fair use.

If what you own cannot be protected, you own nothing.

Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA.

A public domain work is an orphan. No one is responsible for its life. But everyone exploits its use, until that time certain when it becomes soiled and haggard, barren of its previous virtues. How does the consumer benefit from the steady decline of a film's quality?

The public's nerves are raw and edgy. You have to be discreet and understanding about the films you are showing.

If You Cannot Protect What You Own, You Don’t Own Anything!

If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one.

Film-makers must decide what story to tell and how to tell it.

I don't care if you call it AO for Adults Only, or Chopped Liver or Father Goose. Your movie will still have the stigma of being in a category that's going to be inhabited by the very worst of pictures.

There isn't anything in the world that can't be made better.

The VCR is to the American film producer, as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone.

In a sometimes unreasonable business, Jack Valenti was a giant voice of reason. He was the greatest ambassador Hollywood has ever known and I will value his wisdom and friendship for all time.

In a political struggle, never get personal - else the dagger digs too deep.

Every parent in America has the total power to control all television programming that is dispatched to their home today.

The only group in America that deserves to scrutinize what we are doing... are parents.

I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president. For I know he lives and thinks and works to make sure that for all America and indeed, the growing body of the free world, the morning shall always come.

I found the most convincing part to be the working stiffs, the guys who have a modest home and kids who go to public schools. They make $75,000 to $100,000 a year. That's not much to live on. I don't have to tell you that.

I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my president.