The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

I started out thinking of America as highways and state lines. As I got to know it better, I began to think of it as rivers.

There is such a thing as a national conscience, and it can be touched.

Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship.

I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air.

I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling.

New York is the true City of Light in any season.