John Allen Quotations

Where this could hurt the company is in its reputation of not being a great place to work. If left unchecked, it could have an impact on Wal-Mart's image.

Ultimately mutual funds are consumer products, and they have to appeal to people to get bought.

We are going to have to wait and see what their expectations are. As far as I can see, this is as good a sale of what the employees could have hoped for. We hate to see a sale, but this could turn out to be the best thing for the employees.

We had a few come around, but the boogie man scared them away. The signs did the job.

Given that, and given the challenges there are in our core business over the half year, the performance and the result are very encouraging.

Frank is definitely not a keeping-the-seat-warm kind of figure. I've known Frank fairly well for six years. I wouldn't use the term 'rising star,' but in the world of the Vatican he is very highly thought of ... he's someone who could be an archbishop someday.

He talks of relativism ... the smorgasbord of beliefs he sees unfolding, and he is concerned the church will be assimilated if there is not an effort to resist it. That effort may not fill up churches right away, or win popularity contests. ... I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it's the framework he's operating under.

We thought we'd try something a little bit different. But also, in deference to our fans that do drive quite a ways, it gives them a chance to get here and get home an hour earlier.

He is very concerned about how his art was misinterpreted. He's a great kid and it's obviously a mistake.

I think that's what a lot of people like about them.

It is a mess. I feel badly for the property owners. We have a procedure in place which makes it harder for something like this to happen.

That worked out so well, and reservations were so popular.

That was our plan all along, was to go on hiatus and it'll be back, bigger and better. The fans really miss it. We got a lot of calls and complaints about not having it the last couple years.

We've made a lot of contacts. They are strict tampering rules, so we're making sure everything is OK before we move forward.

With the discrimination like it was, I was looking for somebody to break the color barrier.

Firemen and police have a big Celtic background, from way back when New York police and firemen were mostly of Irish and Scottish descent.

You have a lot of people with a lot of money. It's not surprising that they are going to take advantage of being able to easily buy tickets online.

Don't forget he's almost 79 years old. Part of his restricted schedule is not because he's doing feverish things behind closed doors. He's resting. There was speculation in 2002 and 2003 that his health wasn't very good. There is a basis for believing that there may be some fatigue and delicacy of constitution there.

I've talked to him a couple of times about some type of possibly expanded role. But we don't have anything specific to report right now.

Seeing this and what I saw yesterday, there are no words to describe it. I didn't realize it was as bad as it was until yesterday when we were driving around.

Racing is a $2 billion-a-year industry. Half the people who invest in our fund have never invested before. They don't know a stock from a bond. They like stock car racing.

Our defense played well enough to win this game. We just had no offense.

As pope, he has to be the pastor of everyone.

They're kind of groping their way forward to understand how they can make the pope as available as possible to his followers while at the same time protecting his health.

It's a reflection of the trends that are going on not only in Winston-Salem but across the country.

It's better to try, no matter how awkward you feel, than not to try it at all. Would you rather deal with the consequences or the prevention?

Anyone who has followed Benedict knows he can be a bulldog when it comes to matters of faith and morality. But what is surprising is in other areas, the pope is proving to be softer and more willing to listen.

Excelsior needs to stand up and admit it has a bullying problem. That is when the problem will be fixed.

I had talked to several other guys, but (Jones) was, in my opinion, a better candidate.

I am very proud of the players, fans and front-office employees, who donated their time and money toward the hurricane relief efforts.

For Opening Day last year, almost 22,000 fans arrived at the ballpark within an hour of the first pitch. We advise they arrive a lot earlier on Monday. The later the fans wait to arrive, the more difficult it will be to get to and enter the ballpark.

Am I surprised by how slow he's moving? My basic answer is, yes. I knew he was not going to turn the Earth on its head overnight. But given the vastness of his ambitions ... I would have expected in the first eight months he would be doing lots of things of consequence: more significant personnel moves, more significant documents, more serious public engagements, etc., etc.