Quotes by Charles Kuralt

"My parents encouraged me in everything I ever wanted to do."

"Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship."

"I think I'd have done better if I had been a little more relaxed-if I had not pressed quite so hard, if I'd not lost quite so much sleep."

"I could tell you which writer's rhythms I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it."

"The first books I was interested in were all about baseball. But I can't think of one single book that changed my life in any way."

"There is such a thing as a national conscience, and it can be touched."

"I don't think I had a reputation as a hard worker, but inside I was always being eaten up by the pressures."

"It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals."

"Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find."

"I used to think that driving, sleepless, ambitious labor was what you needed to succeed."

"I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading."

"I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air."

"The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines."

"There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority."

"Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students."

"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

"I think all those people I did stories about measured their own success by the joy their work was giving them."

"Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens."

"I had a little insight into life that most kids probably didn't have. My mother was a schoolteacher, and my father was a social worker. Through his eyes I saw the underside of society."

"I can't say that I've changed anybody's life, ever, and that's the real work of the world, if you want a better society."