Mark Leibovich Quotes

I started on the fringes of journalism as a cartoonist on The Daily Mail.

Even before I joined journalism, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. Tintin was an early inspiration.

I used to work for a newspaper that covered local resource issues, and my coworkers and friends were journalists. Their reporting work was always pretty grim.

When I bought 'The New York Observer,' my experience in journalism was limited to a single article I had written for a college magazine.

I'm a reasonably accomplished journalist. I've worked as an investigative journalist, I've done crime beat stuff.

My father was a journalist. He used to write for 'Blitz' tabloid.

No one in my family was a journalist, and it didn't seem like a real job. Part of me still doesn't think it is.

Most of the stories I have covered in 45 years have been gray stories.

I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling.

Having small children and being an investigative reporter would seem like a difficult mix, but it worked well for me. I was often working on my own enterprise stories, which were not as deadline sensitive.

Every newspaper editor says the heart of the paper is the reporter - which is true - except for the pay!

Journalism is not just a cause, it's also a wacky profession.

I went back to the States and started at a small newspaper in Riverside County, California, covering the police; I was making $280 a week covering the police.

The one thing I didn't do that was kind of controversial was go work for a daily paper, because I didn't like that kind of journalism, and I'm glad I didn't because that's the business model that's going totally extinct.

When I started working for Rolling Stone, I became very interested in journalism and thought maybe that's what I was doing, but it wasn't.

I'm not an investigative journalist; I don't track crime or police blotters.

I studied journalism at The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. I did my graduate work at Emerson in Boston, and I was actually a reporter for a year in New York and New Jersey. It dawned on me that I wasn't cut out for that line of work. I mean... there's a certain thing that really good reports have that I just didn't.

I am sorry to be leaving the BBC. I have enjoyed a fascinating seven years at the corporation and am particularly proud to have played a small part in the development of the BBC's Global News services, BBC World Service and BBC World.

I liked journalism and thought it was important, certainly more important than fiction. I'd probably still be doing it if I hadn't been elbowed out.

I was a finalist for the Pulitzer as a reporter.

The post-war American newsroom resembled a vast factory churning out multiple editions through the night. Reporters spent days, sometimes weeks, on a single story.

Deep in my heart it still feels like I'm a journalist even though I haven't worked for a paper and carried a press pass for 14 years.

Because I was once a reporter, I've always felt a sense of estrangement inside the newsroom. The field is alive and interactive, while the newsroom is quiet and stereotypical.

I'm not a reporter but the 'New Yorker' treats everyone like a reporter.

It's like I say to young people who ask me about going into journalism: If you want to be loved, don't go into this business.