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In journalism, a fact is just a fact. But in fiction, you have to build your case. It has to be made, step by step.

Journalism is a craft that takes years to learn. It's like golf. You never get it right all the time. It's a game of fewer errors, better facts, and better reporting.

If you only have one shot at writing a headline, there's a lot of pressure.

We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers.

People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.

In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.

Truth is stranger than nonfiction. And life is too interesting to be left to journalists. People have stories, but journalists have 'takes,' and it's their takes that usually win out when the stories are too complicated or, as happens, not complicated enough.

Journalism is a flawed profession, but it has a self-correcting mechanism. The rule of journalism is: talk to everybody.

It's the nature of journalism to need to be close to your subjects. And either you're able to be tough on them, which a lot of us are, or you get in bed with them, and some people do.

The central dilemma in journalism is that you don't know what you don't know.