“The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were.”

“News is something worth knowing that you didn't know already. (by an "earnest young woman" in his journalism class)”

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.”

“There are different ways people make this place. Sweat, exercise and pain is one way. You can see them in the gyms, in the well-ordered swimming pools. You can see them jogging in the small, worn parks. Another way to make your place is TV. A bright, brash place, always well lit, full of fun and jokes that tell you when to laugh so you never miss them. World news carefully edited so that it’s not too disturbing, but disturbing enough to make you glad that you weren’t born in a foreign country. News with music to tell you who to hate, who to feel sorry for, and who laugh at.”

“The sun sat, in immense fieriness, just above the horizon, the sea, glittering in great swatches of phosphorescent white, waiting to receive it. Then the blazing ball dived and was gone, swallowed in one big gulp by the hungry waters. Amazing how fast, once it got near it, the sun in these latitudes hastened into the sea.”

“In my worst moments, all I had to do was recall the love that I felt emanating from those heavenly lights and I could press on.”