Masha Gessen Quotes

I was thinking of resigning since I did not want to be perceived as a man who did the president's bidding to save my job. I have had some time to think about it since. I think I did the right thing.

I have always chosen roles that I believed in - not ones that I thought might further my career.

I no longer teach law. But when I did I advised my students that they should never accept a case if it meant that by doing so you couldn't sleep at night.

I hate the Communists and have for many years and don't feel right about giving up my career to defend them. I will give up my film career if it is in the interests of defending something I believe in, but not this.

I wanted to be a lawyer. Then a journalist. Actually, I graduated from university as a journalist.

Whether it's corporate investigations or comedy, there are certain inherent truths to trying to get what you want while trying to be a decent person doing it.

I've been really lucky thus far with acting, in that I can do things I believe in and feel good about, and feel good about myself. If for some reason one day that ends, I won't do it anymore. If I feel like I have to compromise myself to continue to be in this industry, I don't want to do that.

I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself, 'Man, you were so honest - can't you have some fun? Can't you do some really down and dirty lying?' But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I'll be punished.

Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It's absolutely unavoidable.

I have principles in my professional and personal life as to how things are done.

I'm only at the beginning of my career, but I feel successful in that I haven't sold out in any way, shape or form. I feel good about the choices I've made, and I don't feel like I've let go of any of my values.

Never refuse an assignment except when there is a conflict of interest, a potential of danger to you or your family, or you hold a strongly biased attitude about the subject under focus.

I have been exposed to a great amount of temptation throughout the course of my career.

The fact that a man is a newspaper reporter is evidence of some flaw in character.

I don’t believe, and I never did, that a man has to become an informer to practice his profession.

It was a morally representative act. Helms withheld the information because it would have cost him his job.

Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honor and professional integrity.

If you go through your life being completely truthful, everybody will hate you, and something I deeply fear is being hated.

My conscience won't allow me to do films I thought were bad but were going to make money.

Being your own person and standing for what you believe is a critical aspect of a good professional life.

We have so little control as actors, but there are ways you can maintain your integrity. I have to say I've never compromised myself in this career once. I've never done something I didn't believe in.

The right thing and the easy thing are never the same.

Don't swallow your moral code in tablet form.