"You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward"
About this Quote
Bakker’s biography gives the subtext its voltage. As a televangelist whose rise was followed by scandal, conviction, and a long, contested attempt at comeback, he’s not speaking into a generic past. He’s speaking into a past that still has headlines attached to it. “Try” is doing quiet labor here: it admits effort without admitting fault. The sentence avoids specifics, which keeps the listener from asking the dangerous follow-up question: look back at what, exactly?
Culturally, this is a familiar American redemption script: reinvention over reckoning, testimony over accountability. In celebrity life, especially the religious-celebrity lane, “moving forward” functions like a reset button you can press in public. The line works because it flatters the audience’s desire for clean narratives - the comforting idea that the future can be chosen like a direction on a GPS. It’s less about hope than about control: if we agree not to look back, then the past can’t look back either.
Quote Details
| Topic | Moving On |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bakker, Jim. (2026, January 16). You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-know-i-try-not-to-look-back-because-looking-106592/
Chicago Style
Bakker, Jim. "You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-know-i-try-not-to-look-back-because-looking-106592/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You know, I try not to look back, because looking forward is so much better than looking backward." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-know-i-try-not-to-look-back-because-looking-106592/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.





