Molly Ivins

Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins (30 August 1944 – 31 January 2007) was an American journalist specializing in Texas politics and culture, and in national politics.

Quotes

• All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people. As long as you don’t think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it’s all marvelous fun.
  • Texas Observer, Notes from a rookie, March 26, 1971.

• There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar. —quoted in People magazine interview, 1991.
  • "The Mouth of Texas." People Weekly, Dec. 9, 1991.

• On a personal note: I have contracted an outstanding case of breast cancer, from which I intend to recover. I don’t need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done.
  • Dec. 14, 1999 syndicated column

• My friend Mercedes Pena made me get in touch with my emotions just before I had a breast cut off. Just as I suspected, they were awful. "How do you Latinas do this—all the time in touch with your emotions?" I asked her. "That's why we take siestas," she replied.
  • Time Magazine, Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?, Feb. 18, 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2007.

• Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.
  • Time Magazine, Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?, Feb. 18, 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2007.

• I just finished with nine months of treatment for cancer. First they poison you, then they mutilate you, then they burn you. I've had more fun. And when it's over, you’re so glad that you're grateful to absolutely everyone. And I am. The trouble is, I'm not a better person. I was in great hopes that confronting my own mortality would make me deeper, more thoughtful. Many lovely people sent books on how to find a more spiritual meaning in life. My response was, "Oh, hell, I can’t go on a spiritual journey—I'm constipated."
  • October 2000 syndicated column

• So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.
  • As quoted by John Nichols, The Nation, Remembering Molly Ivins, January 31, 2007. Retrieved February 1, 2007.
  • Original source: Ivins, Molly. "The Fun's in the Fight." Mother Jones, May/June 1993.

• On Bill Clinton: "If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili. But the man is so constantly subjected to such hideous and unfair abuse that I wind up standing up for him on the general principle that some fairness should be applied. Besides, no one but a fool or a Republican ever took him for a liberal."
  • Introduction to You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You. Salon.com, The quotable Ivins, Dec. 12, 2000. Retrieved February 1, 2007.

• On the Iraq War:

(T)he greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? The risks of an invasion setting off reactions from a hideous civil war in Iraq to toppling regimes all over the Middle East is very real. Also at risk is the very international cooperation necessary to track Al Qaeda.

There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this country right now. We are brushing off world opinion as though it mattered not a whit what other people think of us.

• Blast from the past, November 19, 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2007.

• I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, 'Horrible three-way civil war?'
  • Appalling silence, January 16, 2003. Retrieved February 1, 2007.

• The next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please, pay attention.
  Bush was replaced by his exceedingly Lite Guv Rick Perry, who has really good hair. Governor Goodhair, or the Ken Doll (see, all Texans use nicknames—it's not that odd), is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But the chair of a major House committee says, "Goodhair is much more engaged as governor than Bush was." As the refrain of the country song goes, "O Please, Dear God, Not Another One."
  • Shrub Flubs His Dub, May 31, 2001. Retrieved October 24, 2011.

• Populism is the simple premise that markets need to be restrained by society and by a democratic political system. We are not socialists or communists, we are proponents of regulated capitalism and, I might add, people who have read American history.
  • I Told You So, May 30, 2002.

• Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech; it probably sounded better in the original German.
  • Notes from Another Country. Retrieved Dec 2, 2015.

Quotes about Molly Ivins

• Every so often, something happens that reminds you viscerally of the supremely unfair, amoral nature of the universe. For me, the death of Molly Ivins was one of those things. A genuinely funny woman with whom I agreed more consistently than perhaps any other pundit, Molly was often a source of inspiration to me. Her columns planted the seed for more than one Slowpoke cartoon.
  • Jen Sorensen, Slowpoke: One nation, oh my God! (2008)