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A long life in journalism convinced me many presidents ago that there should be a large air space between a journalist and the head of a state.

In a time of transition for journalism all around the world, it's reassuring to know that some of the old ways endure.

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

Journalism keeps you planted in the earth.

Four years is a long time in politics.

Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.

Journalists are in the same madly rocking boat as diplomats and statesmen. Like them, when the Cold War ended, they looked for a new world order and found a new world disorder. If making and conducting foreign policy in today's turbulent environment is difficult, so is practicing journalism.

In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.

And I've been incredibly lucky to have a long career in journalism that has given me a front-row seat to some of the most important moments in modern American political life.