Quotes and Highlights from
Lord Black: The Biography
“[Napoleon achieved] outrageous success, and felt he could do it indefinitely, but the whole world eventually turned against him. Conrad did the same, pushing the envelope and doing one outrageous thing after the other, but now the public mood is very much against him. He’s pushing the envelope. That’s a death wish. You know that sooner or later, they’ll get you. He doesn’t think like rational people think. All these payments and houses have turned people against him.” – Long-time business associate Hal Jackman, the former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario
“Conrad Black took advantage of an old man, who happened to be my father. My father, having realized his mistake, behaved like a perfect gentleman. Black went around sneering about him. You may want to conclude from the above that his arrogance is greater than his intelligence.” – Lord Hartwell’s son Nicholas Berry
“Yes, I'm living well now. But before I met Conrad I was living in a one-bedroom flat in London, and I may be back in a one-bedroom flat one day.” – Barbara Amiel
“Barbara was skinny. She came in on a bicycle where we produced This Hour has Seven Days, at the corner of Maitland and Jarvis in Toronto. She was very attractive, very lean, spectacularly flat-chested.” – Journalist Patrick Watson describes a young Barbara Amiel.
“Most of the legal skirmishing is nonsense, but the venomous atmosphere created by the corporate governance lobby and the systematic defamation of me by my enemies could make some of the litigation dangerous.” – Lord Black
“In my last year at the helm, I'm told we made as much profit as The Telegraph made in total over its previous hundred years. I was introduced that winter to a room of U.S. investment bankers as ‘the man who made Conrad Black a billionaire.’” – Andrew Knight, former editor in chief of The Economist and former CEO of The Telegraph
...and more....
ON BLACK’S FATHER: He was a proud, passionate man, who loved some people but hated most, particularly those he considered pretentious. After being denied a promotion in the Argus empire by E.P. Taylor, he withdrew from business altogether in 1958, spending the last eighteen years of his life managing his portfolio, drinking heavily and staying up late at night, reading and brooding.
ON BLACK DEFENDING HIMSELF IN COURT: Martin Flumenbaum, a lawyer representing Hollinger International’s independent directors, wanted confirmation that Black had written an email in August 2002 calling unhappy shareholders “a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites and ingrates.” Black said some shareholders fit that description. “The stock is up 140 per cent since then, Mr. Flumenbaum,” he added. “Does that give you the right to steal other people’s money?” asked Flumenbaum. “Objection!” shouted one of Black’s attorneys. “The answer is no,” said Black calmly.