Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens.

America is a great story and there is a river on every page of it.

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.

It's that enthusiasm, that passion for what you're doing, that is most important.

Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship.

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

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.