Quotes

Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

I'm not a big fan of journalism schools, except those that are organized around a liberal arts education. Have an understanding of history, economics and political science - and then learn to write.

I guess I'm always the person to see the glass is half-full. There's always good news in every news report. If you're going to live in a society, you need to know the underside as well as the bright spot, so you can be prepared for dealing with them.

[on the many changes in the source of news stories] We're better off. We have so many more choices. What happens is, of course, that the squeaking wheel continues to get attention. I have a little tool in my house - you should get one - it's called the remote control.

The most memorable interviews for me are folks whose names I don't know: young civil rights leaders in the South, showing great courage as they walked into a town in the dark of night. A doctor working for 'Doctors Without Borders'in Somalia, operating by kerosene light in a tent. Those are the kinds of people that linger in your memory.

Within every generation there is greatness. What you don't want Americans to do again is to go through the tests that made the 'Greatest Generation': first, the Depression, and then World War II.

[on Steven Spielberg] His productions have a common thematic DNA of humanity, so we are enlightened as well as entertained. His work on Lincoln (2012), alone, was worthy of enduring acclaim, for it brought to life - as no other film has - this quintessential American President, struggling with the greatest moral dilemma of our history.