Journalistic Instinct Quotes

As a documentarian, you think, 'Follow your curiosity.'

I was shooting all this time. And there was only one guy who helped to pull him. And I had to think whether I was going to keep shooting or help the guy. And so I kept shooting and then they put him in this little clinic, and I photographed through the window while they had to amputate his leg. And I felt very strange because I didn't - I felt I could have helped, but I didn't help. But then I also felt elated that I was getting a shot that would be important to the film.

It's probably the journalist in me, but I'm naturally suspicious about consensus and always feel an impulse to confront it.

You know how the best story angles often spring from that thought you have on reading an article or watching a show - that thought you have before the responsible journalist in you comes up with something boring. I usually recommend people get in touch with their deep 'reptilian brain.'

I'm still an old-school reporter at heart. Writing fiction satisfies my journalistic need to hear and relay the testimony of everyday people at the center of events.

You see something happening and you bang away at it. Either you get what you saw or you get something else--and whichever is better you print.

Journalists know that often you don't grab stories, they grab you.

If I'm spending more than 15 minutes on a beat, I'm not feeling it.

I'm afraid we'll see reporters stop chasing quotes around the same time dogs stop chasing cars.