Dan Quayle and Life Before the Vice Presidency
- Sometimes he acts as if he has been disturbed,
But other times he is as cheerful as a bird...
- -- Dan Quayle from a poem written to his dad as a youth on
display in the Quayle Museum. (reported in the Cleveland Plain
Dealer, 6/17/93)
I was a less than serious student in college. If I had it to
do over again, I would be far more serious. I did play a lot of
golf. But I don't think that's any reflection on my ability to
lead this nation.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
Looking back, I should have pursued philosophy and economics
and things of that sort in college more, but I didn't.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
I didn't pay a lot of attention as I should have in college.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle
[At the Quayle house, civil rights and the environment]
weren't things that we discussed a lot at the dinner table.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle (reported in High Times,
11/92)
People of my generation had that little bit of rebellion and
independence with your parents. But in my case... there wasn't any
social rebellion where I said, "Parents, you really don't know
what it's all about."
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle (reported in High Times,
11/92)
She was attracted to me by my intellectual curiosity.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle talking about Marilyn
(reported in High Times, 11/92)
I've never professed to be anything but an average student.
- -- Senator Dan Quayle during the VP debate in Omaha,
Nebraska (10/88)
It was just a job. It wasn't any special interest in consumer
affairs. I needed a paycheck and the Attorney General said that I
would be best to go down there, because he knew I was
anti-consumer.
- -- Vice President Dan Quayle and talking about his job as
Chief investigator, consumer protection division of the Indiana
Attorney General's office from 1970-1971.
Life has been very good to me. I never had to worry about
where I was going to go. But I do say, "Dan, you know, sometime
in life there's going to be a tragedy." There was never anything
where "I've got to work really hard to get there..."
- -- Senator Dan Quayle engaging in self-reflection while on
the campaign trail. (reported in the Washington Post, 10/10/88)
I'll have to check with my dad.
- -- Dan Quayle responding when an Indiana GOP county
chairman asked him to run for Congress in 1976. (reported by the
Washington Post, 10/2/88)
I feel that this [1981] is my first year, that next year is
an election year, that the third year is the mid point and that
the fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record
since the last two years, I'll be a candidate again. Everything I
do in those last two years will be posturing for the election. But
right now I don't have to do that.
- -- Senator Dan Quayle
I know one committee I don't want -- Judiciary. They are
going to be dealing with all those issues like abortion, bussing,
voting rights, prayers. I'm not interested in those issues and I
want to stay as far away from them as I can.
- -- Senator Dan Quayle (from 'What a Waste it Is to Lose
One's Mind' -- the Unauthorized Autobiography)
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