There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

I gained a great appreciation for what I would call the collective achievement of the country. I began thinking of America as a much more just and humane place than I would have thought if I'd been covering the civil rights struggle.

The first books I was interested in were all about baseball. But I can't think of one single book that changed my life in any way.

We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.

It was so much fun to have the freedom to wander America, with no assignments. For 25 or 30 years I never had an assignment. These were all stories I wanted to do myself.

I would love to write something that people would still read 50 or 100 years from now. That comes with growing older, I think.

In television, everything is gone with the speed of light, literally. It is no field for anybody with intimations of immortality.