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A basic rule of life for reporters is that you should spend your time talking with and learning about people who are not sending you press releases, rather than those who are.

Most reporters who come to me get their stories directly from press releases. Very few do what one would consider to be their professional duty.

There aren't enough good journalists. There are too many who really weren't groomed to be reporters and, as a result, some of the reporting is shallow.

By virtue of some of the ways the game is played, in terms of message discipline, in terms of access for reporters, and especially in the way that sources and subjects, especially famous subjects, treat the media, almost by default there's more news that's falling into books.

I think some of the best reporters are the ones who can really illustrate the differences between societies, at the same time trying to connect the fact that there are a lot of shared values in addition to those differences.

Reporters have to use their imagination, really put themselves in the shoes of the person they want to interview.

Journalists don't have audiences - they have publics who can respond instantly and globally, positively or negatively, with a great deal more power than the traditional letters to the editor could wield.

I always saw the best reporters as ones you hardly ever saw other than when they were back in the newsroom, writing their stories.

Print reporters have the opportunity to go so much more in depth in certain stories than television reporters do because they're working on stories for months at a time.

Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.