Charles Kuralt

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.

For a while there, I was a stringer. The expression comes from the old habit of stringing together the column inches that you had written. They'd measure it and pay you 10 cents an inch for your printed copy.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.

It's best to leap into something you know you love. You might change your mind later, but that is the privilege of youth.

I could tell you which writer's rhythms I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it.

I recognize that I had a good deal of good luck in my life. I came along at a time when it was pretty easy to get a job in journalism. I went to work at CBS News when I was about 22, and within a year or so was reporting on the air.

Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship.

There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

I used to think that driving, sleepless, ambitious labor was what you needed to succeed.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find.

A country so rich that it can send people to the moon still has hundreds of thousands of its citizens who can't read. That's terribly troubling to me.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

My parents encouraged me in everything I ever wanted to do.