I was really just the tea boy to begin with, or the equivalent thereof, but I quickly announced, innocently but very ambitiously, that I wanted to be, I was going to be, a foreign correspondent.

U.S. soldiers, with whom I now have more than a passing acquaintance, joke that they track my movements in order to know where they will be deployed next.

If we have no respect for our viewers, then how can we have any respect for ourselves and what we do?

I strongly believe that journalism is one of the most noble professions, because without an informed world, and without an informed society, we are weak, we are weak.

Some people accused me of being pro-Muslim in Bosnia, but I realised that our job is to give all sides an equal hearing, but in cases of genocide you can't just be neutral. You can't just say, 'Well, this little boy was shot in the head and killed in besieged Sarajevo and that guy over there did it, but maybe he was upset because he had an argument with his wife.' No, there is no equality there, and we had to tell the truth.

But 17 years ago, I arrived at CNN with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and with about 100 dollars.

But to be self-obsessed is simply not o.k. for the most important country in the world, the United States, which affects every other country in the world.