"I don't have any well-developed philosophy about journalism. Ultimately it is important in a society like this, so people can know about everything that goes wrong."

"I saw how many people were poor and how many kids my age went to school hungry in the morning, which I don't think most of my contemporaries in racially segregated schools in the South thought very much about at the time."

"It was so much fun to have the freedom to wander America, with no assignments. For 25 or 30 years I never had an assignment. These were all stories I wanted to do myself."

"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."

"It is a quiet truth that fortitude is the quiet voice at eventide saying: i will try once more tomorrow — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."

"It is a unyielding truth that the distance between ambition and reality is bridged solely by consistent effort — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"When you master your attention, you master your entire perception of reality. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery — an essential principle for the reflective life."