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.

It is liberalism, whether people like it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?

For 25 or 30 years I never had an assignment. These were all stories I wanted to do myself. So they were always about somebody I like, 'cause if I didn't like him, I just didn't do the story. And to have somebody else paying the bills for this tourism, to every corner of every stage, over and over again? Why, who wouldn't want a job like that?

The storytelling tradition that you bring from the South, I don't know where it arose, but it's still there. You can't go to the feed store, or the country courthouse without running into storytellers.

I would like to explore some side roads in life while I am still in good health and good spirits.

It's best to leap into something you know you love. You might change your mind later, but that is the privilege of youth.

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