In 1949, U.S. Air Force Captain Edward A, Murphy, came up with his famous Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong will.”  With a nod in Captain Murphy’s direction, I have come up with my own law for media interviews:  “Anyone unprepared for tough questions will get them.”

Captain Murphy  came up with his law after observing a particularly inept technician.  I crafted mine as a cautionary note for media training workshops after watching countless spokespersons fall apart when they were asked unanticipated tough questions.  If an interview subject prepares for nightmare questions and gets none, there is no down side.  But if she does get them, she’ll be prepared to gracefully answer them.

In workshops I ask participants write a list of nightmare questions and then we collegially figure out how to respond to them.  In the next round of practice interviews, I ask the nightmare questions.  And when the interviews are over, we critique how well the participants deployed their responses.

What should that answer contain? I recommend the interview equivalent of General Colin Powell’s “Shock and Awe” tactics: overwhelm the negative in a question with multiple positives. How many positives?  According to Vincent Covello, a social scientist and risk consultant with whom I have worked, you need three positives to overwhelm a negative.

To illustrate how this works, let me cite a real world example.  I do a lot of media training for NASA and inevitably in those workshops a participant  comes up with some variation of this nightmare question:

“Why waste or spend money on space exploration when there are such pressing needs here on earth?”

Over the years workshop participants have supplied me with an embarrassment of riches for the answer.  Taking multiple effective responses and merging them, I came up with three cogent shock and awe points, and a subset of three specifics to illustrate the final point.

Here are the elements of that response:

1.  NASA’s budget is approved by the people’s representatives in Congress.

2.  NASA’s budget is less than one percent of the total federal budget.

3.  NASA’s budget is an investment that pays society a variety of beneficial dividends.

The subset are specifics that illustrate the third point:

1.  The space agency creates a lot of science and technology jobs; the kind of jobs America needs in order to stay competitive in an increasingly technology-driven world economy.

2.  NASA’s missions have broadened our knowledge of our planet, our solar system and our universe.  In fact they have rewritten astronomy and physics textbooks.

3.  Spinoffs of technologies developed for NASA have improved our daily lives by enabling powerful computer microprocessors, by giving us global positioning satellites, by supplying life-saving accurate weather predictions and by creating the means to build medical imaging devices that give early warning of cancers and other dread diseases.

This three-part answer, with its three-part subset is a powerful shock and awe response to the negative “waste” or “spend” money on space.  For media purposes we can’t get all of this to fit our ideal soundbite length of 30 words, spoken in ten seconds and comprised of three sentences.  But with some condensation, here is a soundbite version:

NASA’s Congressionally-approved budget, less than one percent of federal expenditures, is an investment in high-tech jobs, scientific knowledge and spin-offs that make life easier and safer.

Following up on the soundbite, the respondent can then cite any or all of the specifics.

Whether you’re dealing with outer space or outerwear, when you prepare for an interview, it’s critical to anticipate tough questions and to be ready to respond with shock-and-awe answers.

Check out this great article from Forbes.com featuring 35 fantastic movie quotes regarding business. Below is an excerpt:

Horrible Bosses, a comedy about three corporate hamsters who aim to kill their oppressors, opens this weekend. Early reviews are solid: Rotten Tomatoes awards the flick a 76% “fresh” rating, and it’s packed with star power–Bateman, Spacey, Farrell, Aniston, Sutherland. But will people be quoting lines from Horrible Bosses for years to come?

Box office sales are one measure of a movie’s success. Then there’s how often people relive the experience by recalling the choicest lines–or even weaving them into their own conversations. Take Caddyshack, for example. Plenty of movies have pulled in more than its $40 million in revenue (according to IMDB.com), but few perhaps have inspired so many people to quote it.

The beauty of a great quote (of the more serious variety) is its power to distill. To punctuate. To make things click. Sometimes the moral is presented on a plate, obvious as can be; sometimes the delivery is more subtle and sly. No matter how they’re served up, the best quotes resonate–for days, weeks, even years, unlike all those deafening explosions blasting their way through the summer blockbuster season.

We went looking for the best business quotes from the silver screen. Colleagues and readers chipped in. Our criteria were subjective, but there were three general guidelines.

First, we didn’t want a list of usual suspects. (Gordon Gekko still made the cut.) Second, we wanted to look beyond movies expressly about business (hence selections from the likes of Cool Hand Luke and Finding Nemo). Third, we wanted the quotes to touch on a variety of fundamental themes—from hard work and leadership, to cutthroat sales tactics and the capriciousness of the economy.

A sampling of HBS’s favorites:

American Gangster

True story of the 1970’s heroine kingpin Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts, the cop seeking to arrest him.

Quote: “The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.” — Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) to his cousin Huey

The Apartment

To curry favor with his betters, a man lets company execs use his apartment for trysts. Mayhem ensues.

Quote: “Normally, it takes years to work your way up to the twenty-seventh floor. But it only takes 30 seconds to be out on the street again. You dig?” — J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) to C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) during a conversation in which Baxter attempts to set his boss straight

Cool Runnings

When a group of Jamaican Olympic hopefuls don’t make the cut for the summer games, they decide to create Jamaica’s first bobsled team.

Quote: “The driver has to work harder than anyone. He’s the first to show up, and the last to leave. When his buddies are all out drinking beer, he’s up in his room studying pictures of turns.” — Coach Irv (John Candy) to the team.

You’ve Got Mail

Romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks as Joe Fox, and Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly, about two business competitors’ anonymous online romance.

Quote: “The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. So people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.” — Fox to Kelly, in an ironic Instant-Message chat

Steel Magnolias

Set in the fictional Louisiana suburb of Chinquapin Parish, about the journey of six women and how they cope with what life throws at them.

Quote: “Smile. It enhances your face value.” — Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton)

Always bear in mind, that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.

-Abraham Lincoln