Orson Welles

I don’t think politicians are natural crooks.… I think they are actors. And actors are neither men nor women. Actors belong to a third sex. Actors are actors, and one aspect of it is the political game. But that kind of acting is not lying, as long as it refers to, and reflects, and exalts the essential commonly held ideals of a culture.

Orson Welles, in conversation with Michael Parkinson (BBC, 1974).