Enron Quotes Flashcards
What is within every great man?
‘Within every great man there’s a buried risk’
Fastow circles the room
‘Fastow, a nervy, lupine guy in his thirties, is circling with an unsettling grin.’
Skillings unappealing description
‘He looks like a bespectacled, overweight, balding accountant.’
Lay makes a point
‘I make a point of knowing people, son’
‘You don’t belong to me, boy.’
Skilling and Roe just fucked
‘Skilling and Roe finish having clothed, quick sex.
Skilling is a solitary transgressor
‘[…] maybe every extraordinary thing that’s ever happened was conceived by a man alone in a room at four in the morning.’
Roe’s world domination.
‘You want power? Enron. India? Enron. South America? Enron.’
Lay is his work
‘I am oil and pipelines’
An orgy of speculation opens - It’s all in Skilling’s head.
‘Magical music’
‘Above us somewhere there is a twinkle of gold.’
‘Musical cacophony of the trading floor’
‘It is beautiful’
The traders interrupts Skilling’s day-dreaming
‘This empty, beautiful purity in Skilling’s head is interrupted by the reality of the Traders’ arrival’
The traders like Skilling
‘There’s nothing Skilling don’t know.’
‘He say, ‘Only people prepared to lose are ever gonna win.’’
Vulgar displays by the traders having beaten Fastow
‘You’re gonna take it in the ass.’
An orgasmic deal for trader one
‘Trader 1 is delighted, filled with testosterone and joy.’
The nature of trading and hunting
‘Closest thing there is to hunting. Closest thing there is to sex. For a man, that is.’
Let’s trim the fat
‘Trimming the fat’
‘The hum of manly pursuits.’
Skilling’s been taking a leaf out of Herbert Spencer’s book.
‘Read Dawkins, The Selfish Gene’
‘Business is nature.’
What motivates people?
‘Money and sex motivate people, Andy. And money is the one that gets their hand off their dick and into work.’
Skilling’s advice to Andy
‘Never apologise, Andy.’
Skilling’s a hubristic dickhead
‘I’m fucking smart. And I like guys with spikes.’
Skilling is trying to market Enron.
‘We’re a powerhouse for ideas.’
‘Ha! I’m Enron.’
Skilling is Lay’s…
‘Golden boy.’
Skilling’s daughter is an enigma
‘Skilling’s daughter appears somewhere high up, not close to him.’
‘His daughter fades into the dark’
Roe should have gone to specsavers
‘Cant’t find a soul in the building with glasses now. Everyone’s copying Daddy.’
An unholy partnership begins…
‘darkly, Fastow’s lair: a dingy place at the bottom of Enron.’
What is life?
‘Risk is life, basically.’
The perception and the reality of Enron stock is shocking.
‘those actual profits aren’t coming through yet.’
‘The gap between the perception and the reality is…’
Fastow wishes for Enron to be unfaithful.
‘I want to give Enron a mistress.’
Fastow wants Enron to be as the shadow.
‘To male a sort of shadow company. A virtual Enron.’
‘Everyone wants to invest in our shadow…? Why?!’
The red box is the beating heart of Enron’s corruption
‘The tiny box glows red and throbs.’
‘The tiny red box is safely put away, buried. We can see it throb.’
‘The red box throbs from deep beneath.’
Skilling’s messiah-complex is showing.
‘The photographer is beneath him to make him look impressive, god-like.’
‘Reaction is ecstatic, like a religious cult. Skilling is messiah-like.’
Fastow meets the raptors
‘Clever girls.’
LJM is set up and fully operational. Fastow is Varys-like.
‘LJM has been fully and complexly constructed like a large, supportive web.’
Lay speaks of the death of individualism after The Purge.
‘You know how you tell the scout on a pioneer wagon?
Beat.
He’s the one with all the arrows sticking out of him.’
Motif of the cigar/Cigarettes/smoking
‘You want to have a cigar?’
‘Skilling picks up the cigar left him’
‘Roe is having a last cigarrette outside on the rooftop[…]’
Skillings daughter matters to him so very much.
‘Why?’
‘I have to check the stock price.’
‘It’s important because I want people to like me.’
‘Because I love you. Now let Daddy get back to work.’
Lay’s ‘Good news, everyone!’
‘And we got ourselves a deregulated state to play with.’
Texas vs California - Bro down
‘Traders are manipulating California’s electricity market by moving energy around.’
The traders are so toxic - Rebecca, probably.
‘Burn, baby, burn!’
‘We’re like the Roman empire! We’re going fucking down!’
‘Let’s rape this motherfucker!’
Death star is stupid!
‘That’s a perception problem.’
Skilling is humiliated!
‘Skilling’s head is leaning on his wrist with his watch on.’
It’s all going to shit for Fatso, Skilly and Lay.
‘But we are a black box, Jeff’
Fastow wants LJM to live!
‘I created LJM.’
‘I Created you!’
Skilling’s peripatia.
‘Asshole.’
The stock price! Oh, God!
‘The stock price drops slightly, Skilling recoils with shock.’
Lay’s speech post-911.
‘Just like America’s under attack by terrorism, I think we’re under attack, at Enron.’
‘Truth is the great rock.’
‘We will let the light shine in.’
‘Collapse.’
The Circle of Blame O.
‘We committed crimes at Enron.’
‘No, you committed crimes at Enron!’
Justice is served
‘Lay and Fastow are cuffed. Skilling is cuffed.’
Skilling believes he is innocent.
‘I told my daughter I was innocent. I believe I am innocent.’
‘Neither of those things make you innocent.’
The voice of the worker
‘My name is Irene Gant[…] I’ve lost a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.’
‘Oh, am I embarrassing you?! I’m sorry. Am I embarrassing you?!’
‘She spits at him and leaves.’
Skilling is unrepentant.
‘I’m not a bad man. I’m not an unusual man. I just wanted to change the world.’