Top 180 Al Franken Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I’m the New York Jew who actually grew up in Minnesota.”

— Al Franken

52. “Most Americans don’t think about antitrust law when they look at their cable bill, flip channels on TV, or worry about what their favorite website knows about them. But they should.”

— Al Franken

53. “Minnesotans lost their jobs because the credit rating agencies didn’t do the only job they’re supposed to have, the only job they had, which is to give accurate, objective ratings to financial products.”

— Al Franken

54. “I’m crushed by the responsibility of writing a satirical book.”

— Al Franken

55. “As someone who’s spent time with our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on USO tours and met wounded warriors at Walter Reed and Bethesda, I feel a deep obligation to the men and women who have risked life and limb on our behalf.”

— Al Franken

56. “We owe an historic debt to American Indians. They have a unique set of concerns that haven’t been addressed, and I’d like to stand with them. Also, I’d like to get their views on immigration.”

— Al Franken

57. “Minnesotans know the difference between the job of satirist and the job of senator. And so do I.”

— Al Franken

58. “Liberals like me love America. We just love America in a different way.”

— Al Franken

59. “There are as many forms of advice as there are colors of the rainbow. Remember that good advice can come from bad people and bad advice from good people. The important thing about advice is that it is simply that. Advice.”

— Al Franken

60. “The problem with Ted isn’t that he’s humorless. It isn’t even his truly reprehensible far-right politics. No, the problem with Ted – and the reason so many senators have a problem with Ted – is simply that he is an absolutely toxic coworker. He’s the guy in your office who snitches to corporate about your March Madness pool and microwaves fish in the office kitchen. He is the Dwight Schrute of the Senate. In.”

— Al Franken

61. “Teen pregnancy went way down in the ’90s, and 75 percent of it was because of increased use of contraception.”

— Al Franken

62. “The Medicare Part D prescription drug bill, which might be the most corrupt piece of legislation in history, was a huge giveaway of taxpayer funds to the big pharmaceutical companies.”

— Al Franken

63. “Demagoguery sells. And therefore, radio stations will put it on. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do something else and also make it sell.”

— Al Franken

64. “The Minnesotans I talk to are really concerned about what the future holds for their families. They’re trying to pay for health care and send their kids to college, they’re worried about declining home values, they’re scared for a loved one they have serving in Iraq.”

— Al Franken

65. “People lucky enough to live in the vicinity of an industrial hog farm are, with each breath, made keenly aware of the cause of their declining property values.”

— Al Franken

66. “Franni knew I loved these tours, but one year she said to me in frustration, “You don’t see Bill O’Reilly going on USO tours.” “That’s not fair, honey,” I said. “He has no talent.”

— Al Franken

67. “I know I’m sort of farting into the wind on this. But I hope you’ll fart along with me. I’ve always believed that it’s possible to discern true statements from false statements, and that it’s critically important to do so, and that we put our entire democratic experiment in peril when we don’t. It’s a lesson I fear our nation is about to learn the hard way. That’s.”

— Al Franken

68. “But I really think that if we don’t start caring about whether people tell the truth or not, it’s going to be literally impossible to restore anything approaching a reasonable political discourse. Politicians have always shaded the truth. But if you can say something that is provably false, and no one cares, then you can’t have a real debate about anything. I.”

— Al Franken

69. “When you live in New York, one of two things happen – you either become a New Yorker, or you feel more like the place you came from.”

— Al Franken

70. “I am a Minnesotan, and not just because I root for the Vikings and the Twins. I like the Minnesota-nice sensibility. I like the liberal tradition; I like the Hubert Humphrey tradition fighting for civil rights.”

— Al Franken

71. “What you see on the campaign trail is me. It’s easy being me.”

— Al Franken

72. “I hope you realize, in a democracy, laughter is assent.”

— Al Franken

73. “Bob Dole used to be really funny. Barney Frank can be kind of funny. Bob Kerrey has a good sense of humor.”

— Al Franken

74. “When I first started writing for television in the seventies and eighties, the Internet didn’t exist, and we didn’t need to worry about foreign websites illegally distributing the latest TV shows and blockbuster movies online.”

— Al Franken

75. “Former Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank once said, “I only voted once for someone who believes in 100 percent of what I believe. And that’s when I voted for myself – the first time.”

— Al Franken

76. “My dad never graduated high school. He was a printing salesman. We lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath house in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. We weren’t rich – but we felt secure.”

— Al Franken

77. “Bill Clinton is the greatest president of the 20th century because I played touch football with him.”

— Al Franken

78. “I had a great time working on the movies, both the major movies I’ve done. I’ve had a great time. I like the people in Hollywood a lot.”

— Al Franken

79. “Having an actual income can expand your romantic horizons toward the more appealing end of the spectrum.”

— Al Franken

80. “I know this seems quaint, but back in 2008, Republicans did not consider “demeaning and degrading women” to be senatorial, let alone presidential.”

— Al Franken

81. “Google might be doping the horses.”

— Al Franken

82. “My dad was a terrible businessman.”

— Al Franken

83. “Virtually everyone in the world believes that climate change is real and is caused by human beings, except Republicans in the United States.”

— Al Franken

84. “Unions gave us the forty-hour workweek, the weekend, and the middle class.”

— Al Franken

85. “I get satisfaction when I write something I like, when I’m happy with it.”

— Al Franken

86. “Gary Bauer is a very good – he’s a good friend of mine.”

— Al Franken

87. “My views about God come from my dad. Dad told me that he believed Nature, which to him included humankind, to be so beautiful, so magnificent, that there had to be something behind it all.”

— Al Franken

88. “It’s hard for a liberal to go on between Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, because it’s like doing country music after hip-hop. I mean, just, the audience doesn’t go from one to the other.”

— Al Franken

89. “There’s plenty of room for humor in politics, God knows, but it’s a serious business.”

— Al Franken

90. “Well, a lot of politics is communicating with people, and obviously comedy has something to do with that. I’ve been a producer and led people. Also, being a comedian, you’re under pressure.”

— Al Franken

91. “If you use Facebook – as I do – Facebook in all likelihood has a unique digital file of your face, one that can be as accurate as a fingerprint and that can be used to identify you in a photo of a large crowd.”

— Al Franken

92. “But in the right-wing media, they do have a right-wing bias. And they also have an agenda. So their agenda is: we’re an adjunct of the Republican Party, and we’re going push that agenda every day, and, as you say, brand these stories that help further the right-wing cause.”

— Al Franken

93. “It’s really building Air America that I’m focused on, and for me, that almost only means doing a good show.”

— Al Franken

94. “I wish I had spent more time at the office and less time in prison.”

— Al Franken

95. “I think that the default for collecting any kind of personal data should be opt-in consent.”

— Al Franken

96. “I’m part of the mushball middle. I consider ‘confused’ the majority position because, thankfully, most people would rather be uncertain some of the time than 100% positive all the time – even when they’re wrong.”

— Al Franken

97. “I’ve never understood why we would want to deny all the joys – and the challenges – of marriage to anyone. Which is why I think any loving, committed couple – gay or straight – should be able to get married.”

— Al Franken

98. “I just can’t sit still and meditate; that doesn’t kind of work for me. I don’t even know exactly what it means.”

— Al Franken

99. “Google’s screen for privacy settings does give you more options for what you share than Apple’s does. But it’s not a complete list, and people aren’t aware of whether or not that information will go to a third party.”

— Al Franken

100. “My point is, the Senate is filled not just with lawyers, but with old white men.”

— Al Franken