01c. 1970 ADMany of these new readers were not yet college-educated, but in terms of their seriousness about the world, their own literacy, and above all their ambitions for their children, they might as well have been.David Halberstam / quote ↗
02c. 1970 ADHe hated House members who longed only to run for the Senate, and senators who longed only to run for the presidency. He was appalled by what he felt television had done to the Senate by the mid-fifties. It had become a major launching platform for presidential campaigns. He thought television had ruined the Senate as a serious body. “All they do there is preen and comb their hair and run for President. It’s like a presidential primary over there,David Halberstam / quote ↗
03c. 1970 ADElliston thought consistency less important than vitality and intelligence and passion.David Halberstam / quote ↗
04c. 1970 ADhe was almost joyously what he had always been, a lot of gee whiz, it was all new and fresh even when surely he had seen much of it before, and it was as if he took delight in not having been changed externally by all that he had seen.David Halberstam / quote ↗
05c. 1970 ADIt was a wonderful combination for a reporter, the exterior so comforting, the interior so driven.David Halberstam / quote ↗
06c. 1970 ADIf he had gone to the old school, he was by no means old-school.David Halberstam / quote ↗
07c. 1970 ADHe was very good, it turned out, at outlining the flaws in the government as long as someone else was in charge of the government.David Halberstam / quote ↗
09c. 1970 ADthe ability to get on the air, which was crucial to any reporter’s career, grew precisely as the ability to analyze diminished.David Halberstam / quote ↗
10c. 1970 ADIf he (George Keenan)felt on occasion more than a little uncomfortable when being listened to, then he was truly unhappy when not being listened to.David Halberstam / quote ↗
11c. 1970 ADhis was a profession in which a good leader constantly had to adapt to new weapons, whether he liked them or not,David Halberstam / quote ↗
12c. 1970 ADOne successful writer said he would never be a millionaire because he liked living like one too much.David Halberstam / quote ↗
13c. 1970 ADWhat looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world.David Halberstam / quote ↗
14c. 1970 AD[On writing:] "There's a great quote by Julius Irving that went, 'Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing tDavid Halberstam / quote ↗
15c. 1970 ADHe never, even in the most casual conversation with friends, spoke a sentence which did not sound as if it was ready for the air.David Halberstam / quote ↗
16c. 1970 ADGen. Matthew Ridgeway "intended not to impose his will on his men, but to allow the men under him to find something in themselves that would make them more confident, more purposeful fighting men. It was their confidence in themselves that would make them fight well, he believed, not so much their belief in him. His job was to keep them to find that quality in themselves.David Halberstam / quote ↗
17c. 1970 ADPeterson thought it an unusual friendship, one only the Army could forge.David Halberstam / quote ↗
18c. 1970 ADThe byline is a replacement for many other things, not the least of them money. If someone ever does a great psychological profile of journalism as a profession, what will be apparent will be the need for gratification—if not instant, then certainly relatively immediate. Reporters take sustenance from their bylines; they are a reflection of who you are, what you do, and why, to an uncommon degree, you exist. ... A journalist always wonders: If my byline disappears, have I disappeared as well?David Halberstam / quote ↗
19c. 1970 ADMost journalists are impatient to get their legwork done and to start the actual writingDavid Halberstam / quote ↗
20c. 1970 ADDavid Halberstam quoted Lyndon Johnson saying of a staffer: “I want him to kiss my ass in Macy’s window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses.David Halberstam / quote ↗
21c. 1970 ADDo you know what the greatest test is? Do you still get excited about what you do when you get up in the morning?David Halberstam / quote ↗
22c. 1970 ADMost commanders wanted as many good sources of information as possible. MacArthur was focused on limiting and controlling his sources of intelligence.David Halberstam / quote ↗
23c. 1970 ADYou could never prove innocence, not in the match with the man who only had to imply guilt.David Halberstam / quote ↗
