All through my life, I have never disguised my sentiments about politics in general.

I never had a single conversation about politics with Ross Perot in my life; still haven't.

I think being a liberal, in the true sense, is being nondoctrinaire, nondogmatic, non-committed to a cause - but examining each case on its merits. Being left of center is another thing; it's a political position. I think most newspapermen by definition have to be liberal; if they're not liberal, by my definition of it, then they can hardly be good newspapermen. If they're preordained dogmatists for a cause, then they can't be very good journalists; that is, if they carry it into their journalism."

[Interview with Ron Powers (Chicago Sun Times) for Playboy, 1973]

The great sadness of my life is that I never achieved the hour newscast, which would not have been twice as good as the half-hour newscast, but many times as good.

I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got.

I learned early on that in the real world, the masks of tragedy and comedy adorn the proscenium of every life.