Ed Bradley Quotes

I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening.

Professionally, I remember Cronkite as a kid growing up, and more so for me, the importance of Cronkite was not him sitting there at the anchor desk, but him out there doing things.

As a print journalist, you can be frustrated by people who don't call you back, parts of the story you can't get. TV gets you access to everyone because people call you back. It also allows you to satisfy your curiosity. I am a very curious person.

CNN was one of the first news organizations in the world to train and equip its journalists before deploying them to dangerous areas.

Journalism makes you think fast. You have to speak to people in all walks of life. Especially local journalism.

When I'm anchoring, I miss chasing stories in the field.

I can't think of any other job in journalism where the newsmakers come to you.

I don't like journalists and I hardly ever talk to them.

I have gone on the air and announced my telephone number at the Washington Post. I go into the night, talking to people, looking for things. The great dreaded thing every reporter lives with is what you don't know. The source you didn't go to. The phone call you didn't return.

People say, 'Oh, you're doing the job of journalists.' I think it's very important to note that we can't do our job without journalists. Journalists can do their job without late-night comedians. They'd be just fine without us. But we, of course, use their work every day to build our pieces.

Truly, if you can't cover a five-car pile-up on Route 128, you should not be covering a presidential campaign.

Whether it's standing backstage with Jennifer Lopez in a dress that I know everyone will be talking about tomorrow... or being there when incredible news breaks, and instead where people sit in front of their TVs and look at it, I'm the person who goes there to bring you the story... It's amazing. It's unbelievable.

Journalists always want publishers or editors to leave. They're creative troublemakers - that's why you hire them.

Given the multiple crises we are living through, investigative journalism is all the more important.

Obviously I love doing newsmaker interviews, and if I can contribute in any way to that, I would love to. I love reporting, getting out in the field and talking to people about various issues.

Journalism is caring where the fire-engines are going.

Never joke with the press. Irony does not translate into newsprint.

Working as a journalist is exactly like being a wallflower at an orgy.

I knew I had to be a journalist because I'm deeply curious about the world.

Always maintain good relations with your public.

You know, honestly - look, I'm not a journalist. This is the first, you know, tragedy that I have covered on the air.

As a war correspondent, you have to weigh the risk you run against the story you can get.

Taxi drivers all over the world, by the way, are under Newspaper Guild contract to give easy quotes to foreign correspondents.

[On journalists:] We are a noisy, imperfect lot, struggling to scribble what has been called the first draft of history.