The quotable Ted Turner

As told to Scott McMillion, Chronicle Staff Writer

On The Yellowstone Club and its vaunted security system.

“The terrorists aren’t going to come out to the ski area. They can’t ski. They’d be lost up there in the snow.”

On lift lines

“There’s not enough people at Big Sky. One of the things about skiing is meeting other people. Getting on the lift and meeting people.”

On Bill Fairhurst, who fought Turner’s land swap and fish restoration projects.

“He must be an interesting guy. He was the mayor of Three Forks at one time. That guy tied us up for five years. Stopped us cold.”

On bison and women.

“Every time I’ve brought new ones (bison) into a pasture, they’ve broke the fences down just to see what was on the other side. Once they saw it was not as good on the other side, they stayed around. It’s like, if you take good care of your wife, she won’t leave you.”

On Montana

“I love Montana.”

On Apocalypse

“Some religious people feel like it would be a good thing for the world to come to an end, because then it’s going to be the Revelation, the second coming, all this sort of thing, and then we’ll be living in Paradise.”

On the economy.

“Our economic problems aren’t because of free trade. Our economic problems are because we’ve been spending more than we’ve been making. When we were young, having equity in your house was a good thing. Remember? I don’t owe a nickel to a soul. This house is paid for and the taxes are current, too, I want you to know.”

On presidential politics.

“I’m very impressed that Obama has come out in favor of total nuclear disarmament. That makes me feel very good.”

On CNN

“They did away with the environmental unit and laid off 18 people. It makes me madder than hell. They’ve done a lot of things that I don’t like. And they’ve made Lou Dobbs into a demigod.”

On deciding where to donate money.

“We can’t do everything. Nobody’s got enough money to do that.”

On amity.

“It’s easy to make friends. If you’ll just put a little effort into it, you can turn enemies into friends. And I’ve had a lot of experience doing it.”

On dogs.

“You can tell a lot about a person when you meet their dog. If they’ve got a mean dog, they’re probably a mean person.”

On wolf delisting.

“I sure hope after all these years of working on the wolves that they don’t kill the wolves.”

On travel.

“I’ve been everywhere, man.”

On illegal immigration.

“It’s kind of unfortunate that the United States is building a Berlin Wall across our border with Mexico. Remember Reagan said ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ And by God, they did tear it down, too. I don’t like walls between countries.”

On global warming and rising seas.

“People like to live close to the ocean, but they don’t want to live under it.”

On changing tactics.

“If your baseball team’s not winning, get a new manager.”

Reader Comments