Kenneth Lay Quotations

Am I a fool? I don't think I'm a fool. But I think I sure was fooled.

But I can't take responsibility for criminal conduct of somebody inside the company.

I mean, our primary businesses in wholesale pipelines, utilities, retail, were all doing extremely well.

They can't do without electricity. They can do with less electricity.

Our liquidity is fine. As a matter of fact, it's better than fine. It's strong.

There are no accounting issues, no trading issues, no reserve issues, no previously unknown problem issues.

But certainly I didn't know he was doing anything that was criminal.

The last thing I would have ever expected to happen to me in my life would be that, in fact, I would be accused of doing something wrong and maybe even something criminal.

We use competitive markets to arrange for delivery of our food supply.

We need someone who is a strong representative of our value system.

I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron. But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal.

There are absolutely no problems that had anything to do with Jeff's departure.

Any slots at the senior level, including CEO or other slots, will be filled internally.

But the most important thing is, Enron did not cause the California crisis.

I have to take responsibility for anything that happened within its businesses.

In the case of Enron, we balance our positions all the time.

Jeff knew full well what he was walking away from. Again, he needed to deal with this right away.

Trillions of dollars every day are being exchanged around the world in all of the financial markets.

When there's uncertainty they always think there's another shoe to fall. There is no other shoe to fall.

Today, there are also buyers and sellers of all these energy commodities, just like there are buyers and sellers of food commodities and many other commodities.

But indeed a market like California is not good for Enron.

I don't think I'm a criminal, number one.

I have faith in the market when we get the rules right.

The problems in California have been that it's been very difficult to site and build new power plants.

We see ourselves as first helping to open up markets to competition.

We've tried to get as much supply into California as we can.

You'd rather have a surplus versus a shortage in your position.

You'll have lower prices under deregulation than you will through regulation.

I've been a strong financial and political supporter of, first, President Bush Sr. when he was running for president, and even when he ran for president a time or two and failed.

Well, rates would go up whether you deregulate or not, and of course, the rates that are going up right now on the electricity side are still within the regulated framework.

My concern is for current and former Enron employees and other stockholders, and I feel it is in their best interest for me to step down from the board.

My concern is for current and former Enron employees and other stakeholders, and I feel it is in their best interest for me to step down from the board.

Next week, we will be ready to roll. I have a lot of good lawyers.

If we do that, then Enron will become the leading company in the world.

I did not want to leave the country this time without reaffirming my interest in, and support for, India, ... I hope that we will be able to find a resolution to this problem.

I believe then - I believe now - that I fully complied with the law.

But they certainly had the right to sell their shares to take care of their problems.

I did everything I could humanly do during this time. Did I make mistakes? I'm sure I did.

He may have had a few trick questions, as he said, but I think he did a fine job on all of it.

I was just trying to make sure that all of my facts were as accurate as they could be.

I was trying to see if they would meet with my lawyers.

I was fully complying with all the existing regulations and requirements on my stock transactions.

I think I and Jeff before me ... were being very, very candid. We were solving these problems and we were addressing these problems.

I was more interested in talking to Vince Kaminski about some general risk-management issues.

I wasn't trying to defend my monkey one way or the other.

We have made it pretty clear to the government leadership we are now at a point where we would like to be taken out, and we think most of our partners do.

We expect the new water company to be able to finance its own ongoing activities rather than depend on Enron's financial resources.

We had realized the American dream and were living a very expensive lifestyle, the type of lifestyle where it is difficult to turn off the spigot.

Currently, there are only a handful of large private sector companies operating in the $300 billion worldwide water market, and there are tremendous opportunities for future growth as the water industry moves toward privatization and consolidation.

Due to the multiple inquiries and investigations, some of which are focused on me personally, I believe that my involvement has become a distraction. ... My concern is for current and former Enron employees and other stakeholders, and I feel it is in their best interest for me to step down from the board,

It will only take a few brave individuals who are willing to stand up and say it's time for the truth to come out.

I made comments I thought were appropriate at the time.

I remember an Amnesia. I think it was appropriately named.

I always tried to comply with whatever the regulations are.

We will cooperate fully with the SEC and look forward to the opportunity to put any concern about these transactions to rest.

The transmission systems are still regulated.

I always took my role as a leader, and certainly chairman and CEO of a major company very seriously as to our employees and trying to create opportunities for them and create opportunities where they could even, as I said many times, could realize their God-given potential and maybe realize more potential than even they realize they had.

Investors don't like uncertainty.

It's been very interesting. We've seen a lot of interesting testimony. We've seen a lot of interesting people, a lot of allegations, a lot of lies, a lot of misinformation and some truth.

If there is anything material and we're not reporting it, we'll be breaking the law. We don't break the law.

Aggressive accounting does not mean illegal accounting.

Every market is in transition.

I take responsibility for what happened at Enron, both good and bad. But I cannot take responsibility for criminal conduct that I was unaware of.

We're (also) looking for a good people person who is able to motivate others and get strong performances out of people.

I don't fear jail because I know I'm not guilty. I know I did nothing wrong. I did nothing criminal and I also believe my God will get me through this.

I've not only pursued the American dream, I've achieved it. I suppose we could say the last few years, I've also achieved the American nightmare.

The collapse of Enron and the subsequent collapse of Arthur Andersen were tremendous tragedies. But as I stated at the time of my indictment on July 8, 2004, failure does not equate to a crime.

I threw my whole life and lived my life in a certain way to make sure that I would never violate any law.. certainly never any criminal laws.. and always maintained that most important to me was my integrity, was my character, were my values.