“Look, when you're in office, you gotta do a lot of things sometimes...” – Richard Nixon, Frost/Nixon ... Movie Quotes Database

Richard Nixon

Look, when you're in office, you gotta do a lot of things sometimes that are not always, in the strictest sense of the law, legal, but you do them because they're in the greater interests of the nation!

David Frost

Right. Wait. Just so I understand correctly, are you really saying that in certain situations, the president can decide whether it's in the best interests of the nation and then do something illegal?

Richard Nixon

I'm saying, that when the President does it, that means it's not illegal!

David Frost

...I'm sorry?

Richard Nixon

That's what I believe. But I realize... no one else shares that view.

In this scene

Richard Nixon Frank Langella More Richard Nixon quotes →

David Frost Michael Sheen More David Frost quotes →

More from Frost/Nixon

Richard Nixon Whenever I have had my doubts, I remembered the construction worker in Philadelphia because he came up to me and he said "Sir I got only one criticism of that Cambodia thing; if you'd gone in earlier you might've captured the gun that killed my boy three months ago." So you're asking me do I regret going into Cambodia?... No, I don't. You know what, I wish I'd gone in sooner. And harder! Richard Nixon I don't blame anybody. I brought myself down. I gave them a sword, and they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I'd been in their place, I'd have done the same thing. James Reston, Jr. You have to set up that he has an anti-democratic personality. There's a reason they call him Tricky Dick.