"In college, I got interested in news because the world was coming apart. The civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the women's right movement. That focused my radio ambitions toward news."

"When Solomon said there was a time and a place for everything he had not encountered the problem of parking his automobile."

"In my case, the listener is often in an automobile driving to work. You can concentrate on the road while still getting an audio message that can be riveting."

"A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is just as bad."

"I think we're doing the right things for the right reasons. We're not doing it to sell products. We're not doing it to be popular. We're doing it because in our judgment these stories are important to do, and at this length and this much depth."

"The pictures are created by the listener, with a little help from the broadcaster. The pictures are perfect. If you're showing pictures, different things in that picture can distract from the spoken word."

"Between 2 and 5 I'm reading in to find out what's been going on while I've been asleep."

"I go home by noon, and I'm in bed by 6 p.m. I get up at 1 and do it again."

"That's the problem with news interviews, you work your tail off to get prominent figures in the news on the radio, but once they've been on, the event passes, the urgency, the issues you talked about evaporate."

"I'm a very straight-laced, conservative news kind of guy."

"People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there."

"Any outfit that has to beg its listeners for money is an organization that has to constantly please its listeners or it will dry up and go away. It shouldn't work when you think about it."

"At a tiny station in New Albany, Indiana, which is right across from the river from Louisville, Kentucky, where I grew up. The Louisville stations were loath to hire beginners, so I had to go across the river."

"If you want anything done well, do it yourself. This is why most people laugh at their own jokes."

"But when you see personal artifacts relating to - by genealogy at least - a living human being, it was just more impressive to me than just about anything I've ever read about slavery before."

"I've never been able to predict the future of anything."

"I wake about 1 a.m. I'm in the office by 2 a.m. We're on the air at 5."

"I'm still excited at being at a microphone and talking to listeners. I love that. It's the most basic element of what I do and I still enjoy it very much."

"Some are pre-taped interviews because maybe we can't get that person live or maybe we're not sure it's going to work out right so we tape it an hour in advance."

"I got to know every format of every station and who was on and what time."

"Public radio has always been so powerless."

"I was encouraged to read aloud in class and vocalize."

"Never exaggerate your faults, your friends will attend to that."

"Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen."