Beau Willimon

Every director is different. One of the great things about getting to work with so many directors in one TV series is…

— Beau Willimon

You always want to try, in everything you do, to attempt something you've never tried before, and the only way to succeed…

— Beau Willimon

This is the way I think about politics: We want two diametrically opposed things from a politician. On one hand we want…

— Beau Willimon

In politics, it's very theatrical. There's a lot of stage craft. The campaign is trying to tell a story that they want…

— Beau Willimon

Richard III is not likeable. Macbeth is not likeable. Hamlet is not likeable. And yet you can't take your eyes off them.…

— Beau Willimon

If you really think that ambition, power, lust, desire are not as applicable in the media as in politics or on Wall…

— Beau Willimon

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.

— Beau Willimon

In the best possible scenario, whenever you get notes from people, they're good notes, and they see things that you wouldn't have…

— Beau Willimon

I don't desire happiness. I think it's a myth, and I don't think it's... and it makes you complacent. I feel very…

— Beau Willimon

Real leaders have to live a paradoxical life, where they must break the rules in order to maintain them. If your expectations…

— Beau Willimon

I refuse to buy a PS3 or Xbox for my home for fear that it might ruin my life. I think I…

— Beau Willimon

In Washington, if you're a congressman or a senator or the President, you make much more money than the average American, but…

— Beau Willimon

Tales of power and ambition and intrigue and betrayal and desire - when you're telling those in a big way, you automatically…

— Beau Willimon

If you work hard and play by the rules, you'll have a better life than your parents did, and your children will…

— Beau Willimon

It's a rough and tumble game whenever power is involved - people's ambitions, their desires, their competitive spirit will often push them…

— Beau Willimon

The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a…

— Beau Willimon

A lot of people have asked me whether I am a cynic or take a cynical view of politics and are often…

— Beau Willimon

The press don't wake up in the morning simply to be a mouthpiece for pols - they're out to uncover and expose…

— Beau Willimon

At home I mostly stick to online Scrabble, or chess or Risk - games I find far less addictive than the spectacular…

— Beau Willimon

I think, people who remain in the political sphere as opposed to going into the private sector, really what they're looking at…

— Beau Willimon

My jobs on campaigns were pretty low on the totem pole - I was an advance man.

— Beau Willimon

I certainly keep my eye on Washington all the time because often life is stranger than fiction.

— Beau Willimon

You just have to re-wire your brain when you're shifting from the stage to the screen or the silver screen or the…

— Beau Willimon

Like any young person who gets into a political campaign, I joined out of a highfalutin' desire to change the world. But…

— Beau Willimon

The way I see politics is, I don't think it's cynical to accept the fact politicians are human beings, that they're flawed,…

— Beau Willimon