Enron Quotations

‘We’re trying…

‘We’re trying to change the world’ (Skilling)

‘Maybe every extraordinary…

‘Maybe every extraordinary thing that’s ever happened was conceived by a man alone in a room at four in the morning’ (Skilling)

‘Ha…

‘Ha! I’m Enron’

‘In the past…

‘In the past, folks thought that the basic unit of society would be the state, or the church or lord help us, the political party. But we know it’s The Company. And the family. And those two things should be the same.’

‘And you’re a…

‘And you’re a godless atheist’ (Roe)

‘But if you’re smarter…

‘But it you’re smarter. You’re supposed to walk around like […] everyone’s viewpoint is equally valid. Well it’s not, some people are fucking idiots.’

‘Business is…

‘Business is nature’

‘Money and sex…

‘Money and sex motivate people, Andy’ (Skilling)

‘There is a dignity…

‘There is a dignity to giving people something they can’t touch.’

‘We have intellectual…

‘We have intellectual capital and the best of it in the world.’

[Above us…

[Above us somewhere, there is a twinkle of gold. And then another of silver somewhere else. And then more, commodities like stars in the sky.]

‘This is the purest…

‘This is the purest place in the world. You know where you come if you’re top in your class? Here’ (Trader 1)

‘There’s something primal…

‘There’s something primal. Closest thing there is to hunting. Closest thing there is to sex.’ (Trader 1)

‘Now as a lawyer…

‘Now as a lawyer I choose my words carefully. So when we tell you this story, you should know it could never be exactly what happened. But we’re going to put it together and sell it to you as the truth.’

‘And who’s gonna…

‘And who’s gonna notice something as small as this? How’s something this tiny ever gonna cause any trouble?’ (Fastow)

[like a religious…

[like a religious cult, Skilling is messiah

‘And the greatest…

‘And the greatest of all these… is money’

‘Things have…

‘Things have started to get divorced from realities’

‘When businesses fail…

‘When businesses fail, when unemployment rises, marriages break down and men jump to their deaths. Somebody. Divides up. The money.’ (Lawyer)

[deliberately oblivious…

[deliberately oblivious to the strange, exaggerated world of LJM. The Raptors scuttle away]

‘Everything I’ve ever done…

‘Everything I’ve ever done in my life worth anything has been done in a bubble; in a state of extreme hope and trust and stupidity.’ (Epilogue)

‘I got this company…

‘I got this company running on Darwinian principles’

‘Risk is…

‘Risk is life basically’

‘We are the good guys…

‘We are the good guys […] We are on the side of angels’

‘I’m not a bad…

‘I’m not a bad man. I’m not an unusual man’

[on screen]…

[on screen] ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky’

[The OJ Simpson trial…

[The OJ Simpson trial… the divorce of Charles and Diana]

[They appear as ‘justice’…

[They appear as ‘justice’ with one blindfolded with sword, the other carrying the scales of justice.]

[The board is made up…

[The board is made up of shadowy, dark, imposing figures with the heads of mice and, in the centre, Ken Lay.]

‘Pork…

‘Pork belly. Up’