Controversial Quotes

It's better to be controversial for the right reasons, than to be popular for the wrong reasons.

I don't see how you can write anything of value if you don't offend someone.

I've never tried to be controversial. The truth is controversial enough.

If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.

I always put in one controversial item. It makes people talk.

Innovators are inevitably controversial.

I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

If everyone thinks you're doing the right thing, then everyone would be doing it. Have a controversial strategy.

I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me

When you become controversial, when you want to promote new ideas, you need to be the face of it and not be scared.

I am really the most controversial artist in the world.

Bad news drives out good news. The irrational is more controversial than the rational. Concurrence can no longer compete with dissent. One minute of Eldridge Cleaver is worth ten minutes of Roy Wilkins. The labor crises settled at the negotiating table is nothing compared to the confrontation that results in a strike ... normality has become the nemesis of network news.

I like gold because it is a stabilizer; it is an insurance policy.

A good joke provides tension, and then, release of that tension. You build the tension by saying things that are controversial. The release is the laugh. The bigger the surprise or insight in your joke, the bigger the laugh.

When I am no longer controversial, I will no longer be important

I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

It's never my intent to be controversial but I don't shy away from it.

I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

Global warming is controversial, of course, but the controversy is mainly over whether human activity is driving it.

There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists.

I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative.

Show business is my life. When I was a kid I sold insurance, but nobody laughed.

Thinking of the universe as a computer is controversial.

It is pretty hard to find the right result to a controversial issue.

I don't mind being controversial. Even Jesus wasn't loved in his day.

If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention.

But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.

Just because you say something doesn't make it controversial, and it doesn't make you a bad person.

My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.

I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.

I have never knowingly made a non-controversial speech in my life.

I just have my characters say my controversial opinions and then hide behind them.

We are not supposed to have an opinion. If we have an opinion, it has to be controversial – that is how we are always projected. It is difficult.

I think controversy has this allusion of being controversial but it's totally not, which is why I'm trying to get away from it because it's just easy and automatic.

An extraordinary and controversial interpretation of Shakespeare's origins, which certainly provokes much thought. A radical analysis of Shakespeare's text, leading to a conclusion which is bound to amaze the reader and the scholar. Who was Shakespeare?

I decided I ought to pick a project that would not be controversial, that would not really cost the government a lot of money.

I know Reverend Jesse Jackson is controversial, and not a popular figure with many, but he hired me in 1984. He gave me my first job in politics.

The chief beneficiary of life insurance policies for young, single people is the life insurance agent.

There are some current 'theories' that, when divested of begged questions, reduce to the non-controversial statement, 'Here are some facts and there may be some relation between them.'

Girls' feels very active and stirring a conversation and controversial, and you can't really ask for more as an actor.

If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.

I still have this image: I can't be controversial, I can't say things.

I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement. I'll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I'll never avoid a controversial issue.

Now that I exist in the mainstream majority, I'm not really so controversial any more, am I? Not really news.

Michael Flynn is a very controversial figure for a variety of reasons.

Let's put it in perspective at the United States Supreme Court, which hears maybe 60 cases a year, most of the cases are resolved without much dispute. The 10 or 15 that are controversial we all know about, and we hear about. The federal courts hear just a tiny sliver of the cases that go to court in this country. Most of the cases are in the state courts. And most legal issues never go to court. So, the legal system is actually not in jeopardy. At the same time, access to law is in jeopardy.

When you do controversial work, you're going to upset a certain amount of people.

I've always been called "controversial." I think if I were not controversial I wouldn't be doing my job.

Comprehensive, judicious, evenhanded, original. An Unfinished Life has the sober judgment and nuanced accuracy that make it ring true in all the controversial and tricky parts.