I had a little insight into life that most kids probably didn't have. My mother was a schoolteacher, and my father was a social worker. Through his eyes I saw the underside of society.

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 could tell you which writer's rhythms I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it.

There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass

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

You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.

I didn't like the competitiveness of big-time journalism.