Kenneth Lay Quotes

Every market is in transition.

We don't break the law.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Investors don't like uncertainty.

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

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

Aggressive accounting does not mean illegal accounting.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The transmission systems are still regulated.

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

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