Report, report, report. Dig, dig, dig. Think, think, think. Don't stop being a reporter because you've become a columnist.

You're not a columnist. You're a reporter (who) writes long.

I wanted to be a columnist so badly that I took a huge pay cut to leave Forbes, which wouldn't give me a column, and join Newsday, which wanted my column for its Sunday business section.

When I started writing a business column 15 years ago, I knew I'd found the perfect job for myself. As a columnist I could pick my own topic, do my own analysis, say what I wanted to say and attribute it to myself. Best of all, I could write in my own voice.

When I become champion, you know, I'll never stop being a firefighter.

I grew up in an environment of jokes and sarcasm and puns. I talk that way, so I write that way.