Michael Moore

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Michael Moore (born April 23, 1954)

Film director and author

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  • "Now, I know this is a bitter pill to swallow. Iraq was going to be your great legacy. Now, it's just your legacy. It didn't have to end up this way.

This week, when Republicans and conservative Democrats started jumping ship, you lashed out at them. You thought the most damning thing you could say to them was that they were "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party." I mean, is that the best you can do to persuade them to stick with you -- compare them to me? You gotta come up with a better villain. For heaven's sakes, you had a hundred-plus million other Americans who think the same way I do -- and you could have picked on any one of them! But hey, why not cut out the name-calling and the smearing and just do the obvious thing: Come join the majority! Be one of us, your fellow Americans! Is it really that hard? Is there really any other choice? George, take a walk on the wild side!" -Michael Moore commenting on President Bush's poll numbers and disapproval ratings. [1]

  • I’m a millionaire, I’m a multi-millionaire, I’m filthy rich. You know why I’m a multi-millionaire? ’Cause multi-millions like what I do. That's pretty good, isn't it? There's millions that believe in what I do. Pretty cool, huh?"- Moore dismissing criticism over his purchase of a million-dollar home. Speech on the Humboldt State University, March 5. 2002
  • Well I failed to bring Roger to Flint. As we neared the end of the twentieth century, the rich were richer, the poor, poorer. And people everywhere now had a lot less lint, thanks to the lint rollers made in my hometown. It was truly the dawn of a new era.
    • Roger & Me (1989)
  • White people scare the crap out of me... I have never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black landlord... never been pulled over by a black cop, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never seen a black car salesman, never had a black person deny me a bank loan, never had a black person bury my movie, and I've never heard a black person say, "We're going to eliminate ten thousand jobs here— have a nice day!"
  • "You and your administration misled us into this war." [2]
  • 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.
  • Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much.
  • I don't agree with the copyright laws, and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people… as long as they're not doing it to make a profit off it as long as they're not, you know trying to make a profit off my labor— I would oppose that but you know I do quite well, and I don't know... I make these books and movies and TV shows because I want things to change, and so the more people who get to see them, the better. And so I'm…I'm happy I'm happy if that happens Should I not be happy?.I don't know, It's like if a friend of yours had the DVD of my movie— gave it to you to watch one night is that person doing something wrong? I'm not seeing any money from that, but he's just handing the DVD to you so that you can watch my movie, that he bought, and you're not buying it— and yet you're watching it without paying me any money you see, I think that's okay, I mean, that's always been okay right? — You share things with people and I think information, and art, and ideas should be shared.
  • "Nothing would make me happier than to have you share it (Fahrenheit 9/11) with everyone you know. All surveys have shown that, the more people who see it -- especially those still sitting on the fence -- the more likely we will have regime change" [3]
  • "How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?" [4]
  • Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English (and we don't even speak that very well.)
    • On Americans in an Open Letter to the German publication Die Zeit (June 11, 2003).
  • I'm going to do damage with it. I'll make sure that my work gets out. That no publisher will ever be able to tell me to take things out. Because I'll put it out myself. The more money I earn, the less they can stop me. Where I come from it's called fuck you money because I don't have to take an ounce of shit from anybody.
    • Upon being asked by Brian Reade in an interview for the Mirror if money and success have gone to his head.
  • "No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!" [5]
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Fahrenheit 9/11

Comments about the movie, and from it:
  • Fahrenheit 9/11: The temperature where freedom burns!
    • A phrase used in some advertisements, it is wordplay based on the title of Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 about a totalitarian state, and the assertion made within it that 451° Fahrenheit was "The temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns."
  • Controversy... What Controversy?
    • Humorous lines of various advertisements for the film, some showing doctored pictures of Moore walking hand in hand with George W. Bush.
  • They serve so that we don't have to. They offer to give up their lives so that we can be free. It is, remarkably, their gift to us. And all they ask for in return is that we never send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. Will they ever trust us again?
    • Fahrenheit 9/11 - Comments by Moore, about the men and women in the U.S. Armed Services.
  • George Orwell once wrote: "And it's not a matter of whether the war is not real or if it is. Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact."
  • For once we agreed.
    • Michael Moore after Bush is shown saying "You can't get fooled again."
  • You've got the Bush Administration using that event in such a disrespectful and immoral way— using the deaths of those people to try and shred our civil liberties, change our Constitution, round people up. That's not how you honor them, by using them to change our way of life as a free country.
    • On the use of the September 11th attacks to expand governmental powers and diminish civil liberties, through "The Patriot Act". - CBS interview (June 2004)
  • I may be preaching to the choir, but the choir needs a good song.
    • USA Today (Jun 20, 2004)
  • Clearly something has happened here that no one expected. And there aren't words to describe how any of us feel this morning on hearing this news.
    • On the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 breaking all box office records for a documentary in it's first weekend, and becoming the first documentary ever to become number one at the box office in North American ticket sales.
    • New York Times (June 28, 2004)
  • I want to thank all the right-wing organizations out there who tried to stop the film, either from their harassment campaign that didn't work on the theatre owners, or going to the FEC to get our ads removed from television, to all the things that have been said on television. It's only encouraged more people to go and see it. We are happy to announce that the efforts of the small-minded few have failed miserably.
    • On the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 breaking box office records. - Zap2it.com (and others, Jun 27, 2004)
  • Early talk was that anti-Bush people would go see it and pro-Bush people would stay home, and that's not the case. Most people do not go around with labels. A lot of Republicans have open minds.
    • On the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 - Zap2it.com (Jun 27, 2004)

When asked what he thought about when he was called a traitor, he responded, “I’m an Eagle Scout and I’m overweight.” [6]

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Attributed

  • There is no terrorist threat. There is no terrorist threat. Yes, there have been horrific acts, of terrorism and yes there will be horrific acts again. But that does not mean that there's some massive terrorist threat.
    • Power Center, Michigan, at unveiling of Dude, Where's My Country?
  • He is probably choking on a pretzel or something. I hope nobody tells him that I have won this award while he is eating a pretzel. ... He has the funniest lines in the film. I am eternally grateful to him.
    • About President Bush, after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival for Fahrenheit 9/11
  • I forgot out there on the stage to thank my cast. So if I could do that now, I want to thank Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld. I thought the love scene between Cheney and Rumsfeld brought a tear to my eye.
    • After winning top prize at Cannes for Fahrenheit 9/11
  • I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a 'deserter.' What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar, and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants.
  • Librarians see themselves as the guardians of the First Amendment. You got a thousand Mother Joneses at the barricades! I love the librarians, and I am grateful for them!
    • After outraged librarians protested when publisher HarperCollins insisted he rewrite Stupid White Men to be less critical of President Bush
  • Maybe it's a sick fantasy of mine, but I am really looking forward to a debate between a general and a deserter. Plus, I really want to hear President Bush have to say, 'Yes, General, No, General.'
  • The majority of Americans - the ones who never elected you - are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction.
  • The motivation for war is simple. The U.S. government started the war with Iraq in order to make it easy for U.S. corporations to do business in other countries. They intend to use cheap labor in those countries, which will make Americans rich.
  • There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them.
  • We know all those facts about Florida and what Katherine Harris did, and the private firm that took African-Americans off the voting rolls and prohibited them from voting. But I've been surprised in this first week how many average Americans were not aware of all of the trickery and deceit that took place in the year before the election to fix it for George W. Bush.
  • You know he's there illegally. You know he was not elected either by the popular vote or by the vote in Florida.
  • If the small businesses suck they'll be driven out of business," he said. "If they got a good restaurant, people will go there and eat. You know in my town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the people that supported all the right-wing groups. They were the Republicans in the town, they were in the Kiwanas, the Chamber of Commerce - people that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small clothing store salespersons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school board. Fuck all these small businesses - fuck 'em all! Bring in the chains. The small businesspeople are the rednecks that run the town and suppress the people. Fuck 'em all. That's how I feel
    • During a speech given at Humboldt State University [7]
  • "Stop this war! Shame on you Hobbits! Shame on you! This is a fictitious war! This Lord was not elected by the popular---" (a computer-generated Oliphaunt steps on Moore, crushing him to death).
    • A humorous sendup of Moore's previous acceptance speech for Best Documentary Feature at the 2003 Oscars. Moore himself delivered the lines in the openning act of the 2004 Oscars, while standing in front of a greenscreen which had the Battle of the Pelennor Fields scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King playing on it; a battle which was, itself, literally fictitious.
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Quotes by others about Moore

  • It was so sweet backstage, you should have seen it— The Teamsters were helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo.
    • Steve Martin, after Michael Moore's 2003 Academy Awards speech
  • To have to answer anything about what that slimeball says is just too much.
  • Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary.
  • Have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11? Watch it,Theres an interesting scene where Bush thinks and waits seven minutes before acting against 9/11. don't pay attention to the fact it's biased or "propaganda" just see what's going on in the documentary and notice a man like Moore from a place like Flint has been researching and is trying to open our eyes.
    • Lou Reed interview on Belgian Cable Ketnet giving his views on Bush
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External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Fahrenheit 9/11 Controversies:

Anti-Moore sites:


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