Quotes By T. Boone Pickens

I don't like stock buybacks. I think if a company has the money to buy their stock back, then they should take that and increase the dividends. Send it back to the stockholder. Let them invest their money again from the dividends.

I was very fortunate in my gene mix. The gambling instincts I inherited from my father were matched by my mother's gift for analysis.

Fundamentals make the market.

I don't believe in a price on carbon, because the government is going to control it and they're going to fail.

I don't think for a minute we went to Iraq for oil. It just so happened that it had oil. But I think we'll come out of the Iraqi situation with a call on their oil at market price.

I always saw myself as a large stockholder trying to make a difference. I wasn't raiding anybody.

If you don't have a refinery operating, it's hard to use oil that's available.

There's no question that tar sands in Canada are probably the largest source of oil available to the U.S. over a long period of time. There's as much oil in the tar sands probably as there is in Saudi Arabia. The problem is, there's a huge capital requirement to develop that.

On a scale from 1-10, my ambition is probably 11 or 12.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the "four P's" - pay, perks, power and prestige - rather than making profits for shareholders.

I'm amused when Congress tries to place the blame on somebody but never themselves. I've never heard any of them ever say, 'I've made a mistake.' I do. I say I called it wrong. But they just try to find somebody to blame.

You can't invest in natural gas on a daily basis. It's too volatile. But if you think of natural gas as a long-term holding, then you push your profit horizon out. A long-term time horizon would be at least two years.

Natural gas is a better transportation fuel than gasoline, so if that's the case, it's cheaper, it's cleaner and it's a domestic resource.

I say, you work eight hours, and you sleep eight hours - be sure they're not the same eight hours.

I've got an opinion on everything.

You give the money where you want it.

In the history of America, we've never had an energy plan. We don't even realize the resources we have available to us.