Quotes By Jim Lehrer

I'm in the reporting part of journalism.

I'm a gatekeeper, and the gatekeepers all used to be mostly old, white men.

My conscience is clear.

I've traveled around the country and I read local newspapers and all of that, and it's a sad, sad thing to go from city to city and see the small newspapers and they're tiny. They're tiny not only in size but also in scope.

If you go to the ball game, you don't need to read the game story.

Most of the gaffes I've made have not been funny - they've been stupid.

In order to reduce the deficit, there has to be revenue in addition to cuts.

People can say anything they want to. If they don't want to get the news from me, get it from somebody else. It's not something I'm going to worry about, I'm sorry.

If we don't have an informed electorate we don't have a democracy. So I don't care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I'm just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.

Everyone should get their news however they want to and in whatever form they want. I'm not going to sit back in judgment of other people and the way they do it.

No two people see things the same way.

There's only one interview technique that matters... Do your homework so you can listen to the answers and react to them and ask follow-ups. Do your homework, prepare.

A skill required to be president is to explain to the American people any given thing they do.

My Marine experience helped shape who I am now personally and professionally, and I am grateful for that on an almost daily basis.

I always wear blue shirts and I like wine or purple ties.

My own view, there is a need for and a demonstrated need for more journalism now than there ever has been.

I'm a journalist and that's what I do.

There's always a germ of truth in just about everything.

The shouting and opinion and jokes don't exist if there isn't first a story.

I have great faith in the intelligence of the American viewer and reader to put two and two together and come up with four.

Preparation is based on one driving force for me and that is to be relaxed enough to be able to listen to what the candidates are saying and react appropriately.

My writing is extremely important, so I write every day. I just enjoy it. I get a kick out of it.

You want to see an angry person? Let me hear a cell phone go off.

If people want bells and whistles and all of that, there are bells and whistles available. If they don't want bells and whistles there are places to go where they are not available.

One of the problems is that everybody is used to the old-fashioned debate system, which is very controlled, and where the moderator plays a more active role.

In television there are only about 12 people who do what I do.

I started as a print reporter.

We have increasingly fewer and fewer journalists who have any military experience and understand what life is like in the military and in combat.

Those who know me know I won't hesitate to turn around and point someone out.

I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a kid. I look at bus driving through the eyes of a little boy. I see it as glamorous.