Michael Moore Quotes & Sayings

WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. — Michael Moore

There's been almost a dozen films that have been made against me. There's actually more films made attacking me than films I've made. — Michael Moore

I've read stories of slave owners who were very generous. They didn't keep them in shackles, they didn't whip the slaves, they built schools and churches for them, free housing, free food, free everything. It's wrong. No matter how nice you make it look, it's wrong. — Michael Moore

Back in the late '90s, I put together a humorous newsmagazine program called 'The Awful Truth' for Bravo. We helped one guy get an organ transplant whose insurance company had refused to pay. I thought, if we could save a guy's life in a 10-minute segment on cable, what could we do if we devoted a whole movie to a whole bunch of people? — Michael Moore

Listen friends, you have to face the truth: You are never going to be rich ... The system is rigged in favor of the few, and your name is not among them, not now and not ever. — Michael Moore

I get called 'controversial' all the time. — Michael Moore

Nobody had a credit card when I was a kid. No one had credit card debt. But these big companies and banks wanted to know how to get more money out of people - get them charging things. — Michael Moore

There's nothing inherently or patently wrong with anybody who does well, works hard, earns a living, betters themselves. I'm not against any of these things. It's about how you make that money, and then what you do with it. — Michael Moore

I don't 'support the troops' or any of those other hollow and hypocritical platitudes uttered by Republicans and frightened Democrats. Here's what I do support: I support them coming home. I support them being treated well. — Michael Moore

I don't believe that the Bush Administration had something to do with September 11th. I do believe that there were a lot of warning signals, but I don't think they were ignored on purpose - Bush just wanted to go to the ranch for a month. — Michael Moore

[Librarians] are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them. — Michael Moore

[Bill] Clinton was a pretty good president for a Republican. — Michael Moore

The media, the corporations, the politicians ... have all done such a good job of scaring the American public, it's come to the point where they don't need to give any reason at all. — Michael Moore

The worst thing to tell a free people in a country that's still mostly free is that they are not allowed to read something. — Michael Moore

The products built in the factories of G.M., Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. — Michael Moore

Television has its own award. It's called the Emmy. It's a good award. I like it. I have one. But you don't see movies like 'The King's Speech' win Oscars and then go to TV and qualify for Emmys. In documentaries, some networks have been able to game the system. — Michael Moore

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win. — Michael Moore

Greed has been with human beings forever. We have a number of things in our species that you would call 'the dark side,' and greed is one of them. If you don't put certain structures in place or restrictions on those parts of our being that come from that dark place, then it gets out of control. — Michael Moore

Most Americans are very responsible. — Michael Moore

You can't regulate child labor. You can't regulate slavery. Some things are just wrong. — Michael Moore

I like America to some extent. — Michael Moore

I don't even like DVDs. Honest to God, in my lifetime, I might have rented a dozen DVDs, literally gone into a video store and rented a dozen DVDs in my lifetime, because I don't like to see movies that way. I like to see them on the big screen. — Michael Moore

I take much of the attacks and the criticism toward me as being very class-based, but as Americans we don't like to acknowledge that reality. — Michael Moore

The No. 1 cause of bankruptcies is medical bills. — Michael Moore

I went without health insurance until 'Roger & Me,' basically - from about age 20 till about age 35. With 'Roger & Me,' I joined the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild, and since then I've had excellent health care managed by the union. — Michael Moore

I was taught from a very early age that it was probably the most American thing you can do is to question what's going on and to try to fix things that you see that aren't right. I believed that as a young person, and I believe that today. — Michael Moore

We as Americans believe it's OK to kill people. We believe it's OK to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. We think it's OK to invade a country where we think Osama Bin Laden is and he's in the other country. So we just go in and we just kill. And we have the death penalty; we sanction it. — Michael Moore

If we say, 'The government sucks,' we're kind of saying that we suck. — Michael Moore

Oprah's got good politics, she's got a good heart, and she'll have us all up Jazzercising at six in the morning. This cannot be a bad thing, and reading a book while we're Jazzercising. So America would be better off if Oprah were president. — Michael Moore

'Zero Dark Thirty' is a disturbing, fantastically-made movie. It will make you hate torture. — Michael Moore

I do believe that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute you. I believe that there is power and strength in that. — Michael Moore

New York City has become a place where it's not easy for the working class to even live. — Michael Moore

My mum taught me how to read before I went to kindergarden, I always thought that being able to read provided lightness, help to dispel darkness, ignorance and stupidity. — Michael Moore

So is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans? Sure. The Democrats say one thing ("Save the planet!") and then do another
quietly holding hands behind the scenes with the bastards who make this world a dirtier, meaner place. The Republicans just come right out and give the bastards a corner office in the West Wing. That's the difference. — Michael Moore

A lot of people on Capitol Hill don't want to talk to me. — Michael Moore

No 22-year-old should have to enter the real world already in a virtual debtors' prison. — Michael Moore

When you come from the working class and you do well enough whereby you can provide a little bit better for your family, get a decent roof over their head and send them to a good school, that's considered a good thing. — Michael Moore

Politicians never keep all their promises. — Michael Moore

These bastards who run our country are a bunch of conniving, thieving, smug pricks who need to be brought down and removed and replaced with a whole new system that we control. — Michael Moore

They may rail at this life - from the hour I began it,
I've found it a life full of kindness and bliss;
And until they can show me some happier planet.
More social and bright, I'll content me with this. — Michael Moore

The American media wants to pump you full of fear. — Michael Moore

I don't like to sit around whining about the corporate media, how they control everything, own everything. We already know that. — Michael Moore

Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people and that something is democracy. — Michael Moore

I'm a citizen in a democracy. To call me an activist would be redundant. It's not a spectator sport. If we all become non-participants, it no longer works. — Michael Moore

Jesus told us that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us. — Michael Moore

I think that there's something in the American psyche, it's almost this kind of right or privilege, this sense of entitlement, to resolve our conflicts with violence. There's an arrogance to that concept if you think about it. To actually have to sit down and talk, to listen, to compromise, that's hard work. — Michael Moore

A lot of political people, especially people on the left, have forgotten the importance of humor as an incredible weapon, and a vehicle through which to affect change. — Michael Moore

I don't want to do anything that violates my own personal code of ethics and morals. — Michael Moore

The economic system that the United States has is an evil empire. It's an economic system that's not fair, not just, and it's not democratic. And it will fall just like communism fell. The richest 1 percent now own 50 percent of the wealth. It didn't use to be that way. The average CEO 20 years ago made 20 times as much as the average employee. Now they make 212 times as much. — Michael Moore

I don't want to involve myself in the various arguments about why Israel was created ... I want to deal with the situation at hand which is the ongoing killing on both sides ... It's true that there's also much oppression of Palestinians in Arab countries, where Palestinians aren't allowed to vote or own property and are treated as second class citizens and pawns in the fight against Israel. But I'm not going to spend my time on this since there is isn't a whole lot I can do about it. — Michael Moore

There's not democracy in the workplace. I mean, through most of our daily lives, the idea of democracy is fairly nonexistent. And I think things work better when the people who have to work with whatever it is we're working with have a say in how it's working. — Michael Moore

Somehow, I don't think Jesus came to Earth to ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. — Michael Moore

We all need to be huge supporters of the theatrical documentary. — Michael Moore

People of my age who went to college, go into college, you know what it cost back then? Nothing or next to nothing. At the most, you had to work at Dairy Queen during the summer and that would pay for your college education. — Michael Moore

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity. — Michael Moore

Capitalism would have never let me be a filmmaker, living in Flint, Michigan with a high school education. I was going to have to make that happen myself. — Michael Moore

You think history is going to remember the United States as a great democracy? No, they're going to think of us as a nation that became addicted to war. They'll call us warlords. — Michael Moore

The health insurance industry does not like to pay out claims, because they don't make money. The only way they can make a profit is if they don't pay for your operation. If they pay for your operation and your doctor's appointment and your pharmaceuticals, they don't make any money. — Michael Moore

You survive by having your fear compass calibrated correctly. Our compass is off now because we're being told to be afraid of everything. The things that we're frightened of, or told to be frightened of, are not necessarily the things that we need to fear. — Michael Moore

I tell everybody on the first day of making a movie that if anyone's here to further their career, they should leave. I'm gonna make the movie in such a way that we won't have a career when this movie comes out. Because the people who hold the moneybags are not going to want to share any of that money with us to make the next movie! — Michael Moore

If you believe in equality, if you believe in standing up for the rights of all, especially for people most affected by bigotry and discrimination, then you have no choice but to be present and accounted for when it comes to standing up for gays and lesbians in our society. — Michael Moore

I don't talk in sound bites. — Michael Moore

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. — Michael Moore

What really went wrong is that General Motors has had this philosophy from the beginning that what's good for General Motors is good for the country. So, their attitude was, 'We'll build it and you buy it. We'll tell you what to buy. You just buy it.' — Michael Moore

Most people don't see themselves as Democrats or Republicans. They see themselves as Americans. — Michael Moore

Filmmakers and artists always thrive during more liberal times. — Michael Moore

As a quiet salute to Beavis and Butthead, I held up my index finger and thumb in an "L"-the international sign for loser. — Michael Moore

Capitalism is an organized system to guarantee that greed becomes the primary force of our economic system and allows the few at the top to get very wealthy and has the rest of us riding around thinking we can be that way, too - if we just work hard enough, sell enough Tupperware and Amway products, we can get a pink Cadillac. — Michael Moore

I watch way too much C-SPAN. — Michael Moore

Any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. — Michael Moore

It is the responsiblity of every human to know their actions and the consequences of their actions and to ask questions and to question things when they are wrong. — Michael Moore

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

I was a good little boy and a good student. I've never been arrested. — Michael Moore

I had an unusually large-sized head, though this was not uncommon for a baby in the Midwest. The craniums in our part of the country were designed to leave a little extra room for the brain to grow in case one day we found ourselves exposed to something we didn't understand, like a foreign language, or a salad. — Michael Moore

I think as a filmmaker my first contribution would just be to make a good movie that people would love to see and leave the theatre charged, with a sense of excitement. — Michael Moore

What I'm asking for is a new economic order. I don't know how to construct that; I'm not an economist. — Michael Moore

It's not surprising to me that in a country born of racial genocide, the issue of race is still an open wound on the American soul. We haven't dealt with it. — Michael Moore

I've been encouraging documentary filmmakers to use more and more humor, and they're loath to do that because they think if it's a documentary it has to be deadly serious - it has to be like medicine that you're supposed to take. And I think it's what keeps the mass audience from going to documentaries. — Michael Moore

If we don't participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy. So Obama will rise or fall based not so much on what he does but on what we do to support him. — Michael Moore

First of all, the American people are inundated with advertisement after advertisement of you buy, buy, buy. You've got to have the latest thing. The iPad 1 isn't any good anymore, you've got to have the iPad 2. The iPhone 4, now you've got to have iPhone 4S. Now you've got to have the 5b, now you've got to have the 6c. — Michael Moore

I want us all to face our fears and stop behaving like our goal in life is to merely survive. "Surviving" is for wimps and game show contestants stranded in the jungle or on a desert island. You are not stranded. You own the store ... You deserve better. — Michael Moore

As the country continues to dissect the recent natural disaster, we might want to start considering what about the disaster wasn't actually 'natural' at all ... Human activity, the burning of fossil fuels, is causing global warming. Global warming is causing the oceans to warm. Warm oceans are steroids for storms. — Michael Moore

People like me who grew up in a working-class town, who don't have a college education, you don't usually hear from us. — Michael Moore

I don't compromise my values and I don't compromise my work. That's why I've been kicked from one network to the next: I won't give in. — Michael Moore

We're never gonna get rid of crazy people. They've been around for thousands of years - they'll continue to be around; they'll continue to do horrible things. — Michael Moore

How do you deliver democracy to a country? You don't do it down the barrel of a gun. That's not how you deliver it. — Michael Moore

A majority of this country opposes this war, a majority of this country never voted for this administration. — Michael Moore

I'm actually a fairly conservative person. I live a very conservative lifestyle. — Michael Moore

There's no violence coming from the Occupy protesters. — Michael Moore

I and you and everyone else has to be a political activist. — Michael Moore

I'm a highly flawed individual, as we all are, and because I was raised by Jesuits, I'm constantly, 'What is it about me and what I can do to be better?' — Michael Moore

I like BuzzFeed, and I understand the pressure that online reporters are under. But I think everyone agrees that, despite all the awesome kitten gifs, they're still obligated to be skeptical of government officials and ask the right questions. — Michael Moore

You know he's [George W. Bush] there illegally. You know he was not elected either by the popular vote or by the vote in Florida. — Michael Moore

Documentaries are a form of journalism. — Michael Moore

I've always been sort of confused by the trajectory my life has taken. I was supposed to be on an assembly line building Buicks. — Michael Moore

No one is entertained by economics. — Michael Moore

The money to fund great things and innovations and programs is gone in our lifetime; it's all gone to debt. So we won't be able to solve global warming or have the transportation that we needed for the 21st century. We should be supporting people with great ideas, but it's gone, and now it's gotta be paid back with interest to banks in China. — Michael Moore

I'm very blessed and fortunate that people want to go see my movies. — Michael Moore

I have been aspiring to write some sort of literature for a long time. — Michael Moore

If I were a capitalist I would not give my employees health insurance with no deductible, which I do, including dental, and paid pregnancy leave. That's not called capitalism, that's called being a Christian and someone who believes in democracy, so that everyone should get a fair slice of the pie. — Michael Moore