I didn't have the ambition to be a broadcaster. I was going to be a newspaper reporter the rest of my life, but that opportunity came along.

TV critics, who traditionally hate television and make their living writing about it, often didn't like what I did on the air.

What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well, or the bell, or the stone walls, or the crisp October nights or the memory of dogwoods blooming. Our loyalty is not only to William Richardson Davie though we are proud of what he did 200 years ago today. Nor even to Dean Smith, though we are proud of what he did last March. No, our love for this place is based on the fact that it is as it was meant to be, the University of the people.

I don't have any well-developed philosophy about journalism. Ultimately it is important in a society like this, so people can know about everything that goes wrong.

I can't say that I've changed anybody's life, ever, and that's the real work of the world, if you want a better society.

I think the feature reporter often walks a very thin line between a truly human story and one that slops over into mushiness or sentimentality.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.