Top 133 Manipulative Quotes & Sayings

And I always had this idea for making a movie about a femme fatale, because I like these characters. They're a lot of fun, they're sexy, they're manipulative, they're dangerous.

Every director knows it is his job to be manipulative. When you make an edit, you are trying to manipulate.

It doesn't make me feel good to be conniving and manipulative. I can't do that.

I eat haughty, arrogant, manipulative, self-important bitches like you for breakfast, sugar. And then I go back for seconds.

The BBC is very aware of its role in shaping people's consciousness... it's manipulative and deeply political.

I'm not naturally manipulative.

Women are the sexual slaves of men. They have been convinced that they are the "weaker" sex through a variety of manipulative devices in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Punk, I see you as a hypocritical, manipulative waste of skin.

I'm very manipulative towards directors. My theory is that everyone on the set is directing the film, we're all receiving art messages from the universe on how we should do the film.

I mean you really can target your answers to get the instant response and I think that is a very manipulative type of polling. I really have no time for that worm at all.

It's ridiculous how the United States practically every week sanctions Cuba and then uses manipulative language to say this is 'helping' the Cuban people.

I have no doubt that the Congress is active in manipulative politics.

I don't want to throw mud at anyone - I really admire Gandhi as a brilliant strategist - but Gandhi was pretty manipulative, you know.

I've never played a manipulative, drug-smuggling lesbian before. For me, it's pushing me in an area that's great. There are days when I'd read the script and I'd be like, "Oh, God, I can't believe I have to do that."

One of the things that I was interested in about Moriarty was - he's so manipulative that he doesn't need to commit violence himself or kill people - he can get everyone to do what he needs to do. And sometimes they don't even know that they are being manipulated by him.

We should all reevaluate advertising that contradicts what we know to be the truth; especially when the ads are harmfully manipulative.

New techniques - often spinning out of technology and lack of privacy has resulted in new manipulative communication formats.

All those months of taking it for granted that Peeta thought I was wonderful are over. Finally, he can see me for who I really am. Violent. Distrustful. Manipulative. Deadly. And I hate him for it.

I'm buying things for people I don't even know. I'm like Willy Wonka, but more manipulative. Imagine if Willy Wonka had a devious goal.

Evil or manipulative people don't need a book, they just do it anyway.

To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.

The thing with Disney songs is they're very manipulative, very sentimental, but they do get you, you know - there's a kind of sadness to them and that kind of music doesn't really exist any more.

Everybody has the ability to be manipulative, to be hateful and deceitful.

Sidharth Shukla is very manipulative.

Engineering is a predictive science, not a manipulative art.

Condemning art as manipulative is a non sequitur, of course. All art is manipulative.

It's intrusive for grandparents to think they're in charge. It's manipulative. Also, it's self-destructive, since if the parents have to resist you, you won't get your mitts on the kid as often.

I'm not trying to be coy or manipulative or Machiavellian, I want to spark people's imaginations.

Fear is a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.

Horror I appreciate is one of the few genres that can wind the audience up and make them pay attention. I kind of like that. It's one of the few genres that can be very manipulative.

To my credit, I think I'm a gentle control freak. Maybe even a little manipulative.

Everyone faces challenges from the fierce competition as well as the manipulative crooks that are rampant throughout the music business.

[Walter Burns is] the archetypal managing editor-ruthless, self-righteous, manipulative, downright maniacal if it means an exclusive, especially one that it can congratulate itself for on its own front page.

Any time you're trying to do a movie with a happy ending, it's very difficult because it's been done before and you don't want to be manipulative.

The funeral business is so manipulative emotionally. I would want to be thrown into the sea or burned - something that's not a big hassle.

Here in particular the idea of contextual communication - i.e. communicating the right message, at the right time to the right audience - seems to generate an increasing effect on the consumer in a manipulative way.

Lisa Vanderpump is a manipulative person and when I was on the show I did a lot of her dirty work for her.

We're telling the story of 'Daredevil'. In this aspect, the storylines accentuate the sociopathic tendencies in her. The writers wanted to highlight that Elektra is quite manipulative and doesn't seem to have a conscience.

These books ain't window dressing. I think Machiavelli's the most sophisticated writer outside of Shakespeare. Way ahead of his time. Such a manipulative person. Everything he accomplished he did by kissin' ass.

I've seen people who stink, but the film editor shows them just where they didn't stink. But if you're empty and manipulative on stage, it's clear.

A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in.

My first relationship was from when I was about 15 to 19. My second relationship was kind of like a rebound, but also a really important part of my journey - he was very emotionally manipulative and just wanted me to be an accessory.

I'm never really conscious of saying, "I'm going to take on a specific role to combat a certain image in the public eye." I think that's pretty manipulative and transparent to the public anyway.

Tactics are manipulative.

I am not a manipulative person.

If you're sincere, praise is effective. If you're insincere, it's manipulative.

With me, personal relationships are like my religion. I care that deeply about them. I am the complete opposite of a manipulative smoothie.

I don't like movies that are too manipulative. A lot of movies thrive on really pushing your buttons and making you hate the villain.

Management is the set of skills that can help get things done. Unfortunately, its practice is too often a bag of manipulative tricks to advance someone's own interests, which creates cynicism.

Reality TV is sleazy, it is manipulative. It is as momentary as anything in popular culture.

I was thinking about the legacy of ghosts in fiction, and specifically the moral power of those Dickensian ghosts. Because a ghost can be a very powerful but also manipulative element.

We north-easterners are less manipulative and less complex and people living there are much happier than the rest of the country.

When I began my work on how morality varies across the political spectrum, there was a partisan, manipulative element to it. I wanted to help the Democrats win.

A friend once told me that I was always so manipulative, 'a silver-tongued devil,' as he put it. I was never aware of it.

It did not feel like something that was going to take over my life and destroy it. It felt like a subtle flower instead of a manipulative demon. That's the mystery of heroin.

It is my drawback that I am not manipulative and this trait doesn't work in the industry. People in the industry are very manipulative. For me, I will say it if I don't like, and I don't know how to butter people. Even Salman Khan is like that, he is very straightforward and not manipulative at all.

It's not socially acceptable to be a complete and utter manipulative cow.

Most of the books and films I love walk a knife edge between romance and cynicism, and I wanted 'One Day' to stay on that line. I wanted it to be moving, but without being manipulative.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

I'm interested in dissecting the manipulative qualities that always come when you combine sound with images. We have seen this exploited to various degrees of shamelessness in recent history, and the way this works needs to be exposed.