Gary Weiss > Quotes

“He was low-key and stating the obvious, but it was necessary because Rand's dogma is predicated on ignoring the obvious.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“Madoff was the nightmare you try to forget. Eddie Antar was the fever dream you try to remember even though it was strange and scary and made no sense.”
― Gary Weiss, Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie

“Rand was willing to wipe out reality,' said Iris.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“What I was seeing here is a perennial issue for Ayn Rand followers—the need to finesse aspects of her teachings that make no sense, or seem superficially coherent but crumble upon even cursory examination.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“I've known CEOs I wouldn't let borrow a pencil who thought their lives were beacons of integrity.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“The street kid in Eddie had kicked in. Punks weren’t invading his store. If there was going to be crime at a Crazy Eddie, he was going to be the one committing it.”
― Gary Weiss, Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie

“If they were, they might not care for an article by Rand, published in Cosmopolitan in April 1963, in which she distinguished between “Money-Makers” and “Money-Appropriators.”6 Rand’s views were rooted in the long-gone days of heavy industry, so she admired “Money-Makers” who exemplify “the discoverer who translates his discovery into material goods.” The Money-Appropriator, on the other hand, “is essentially noncreative—and his basic goal is to acquire an unearned share of wealth created by others. He seeks to get rich, not by conquering nature, but by manipulating men” and by “social maneuvering.” The Money-Appropriator “does not produce, he redistributes; he merely switches the wealth already in existence from the pockets of its owners to his own.” Rand was aiming her ridicule directly at Wall Street. In the article, she quoted her longtime associate Alan Greenspan addressing “what percentage of men in our business world he would regard as authentic Money-Makers—as men of fully sovereign, independent judgment.” Greenspan’s response, “a little sadly: ‘On Wall Street—about five per cent; in industry—about fifteen.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“She would come again to the White House two years later, when another acolyte named Malcolm Fraser, the prime minister of Australia, paid a visit. She rarely strayed from her apartment on New York City’s East Side, emerging occasionally to give lectures. During her final years she became a fussy and bitter old woman, shuffling around her neighborhood in a housecoat.”
― Gary Weiss, Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle for America's Soul

“The frauds of early 1986 were a triumph. But the Antars could not rest. Even after a feeding, the fraud rattlesnake did not feel sated. It only grew hungrier.”
― Gary Weiss, Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie

“But the problem with reality was that it couldn’t be controlled. It just happened.”
― Gary Weiss, Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie