"When I was a little girl in the 1950s, it would not have been possible for me to say, I want to be an anchorwoman when I grow up."

"Walking into a room filled with people you don't know but who know you brings out your worst vulnerabilities."

"In the beginning, my mother humored me when I told her I wanted to be a reporter."

"I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise."

"Being a novelty had its advantages."

"Women didn't want to watch other women on television because they were jealous of their husbands' diverted attention."

"News events cannot be controlled, nor can newscasts be mapped out like entertainment shows."

"My current goal is to place a moratorium on goals."

"For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work."

"Some news managers have been slow to grasp that good television news is always substance over form."

"The latest wrinkle is on wrinkles. There is a widespread belief that women can't grow old in television news."

"By far my most perilous assignment was covering a tank car explosion."

"In every interview I have ever read or seen or taken part in, the final question in our future-oriented society is always, What next?"

"The single life is not one I willingly chose for myself."

"It is my belief that one's salary is between an individual and the IRS."

"Mistakes are not always the result of someone's ineptitude."

"Television news is a delicate balance of serving public good and private gain."

"Women were seldom given quality assignments or adequate air time."

"The idea of stardom was difficult to grasp. It was like being schizophrenic; there was her, the woman on television, and the real me."

"A fact of modern life is that it takes women longer to get ready than men."

"I don't exactly know what it means to be ready. A cake when the oven timer goes off? Am I fully baked, or only half-baked?"

"My most lucrative job in college was a stint as the regional Dodge Girl."

"I hadn't realized until I covered the police beat just how seedy crime is."

"Texas was defined by its larger-than-life characters, particularly politicians."

"The relationship between talent and management is uneasy, at best."

"You can easily die racing to cover a bank robbery as you can in a war zone."

"The bad news is that 50 people died in a hotel fire; the good news is that we got exclusive footage."

"One reason I left local news was that I was tired of the constant musical chairs among news directors."

"Although I was entirely relaxed on camera, if I had to stand up and say something to an assembled group of people, I was rendered all but inarticulate."

"News events are like Texas weather. If you don't like it, wait a minute."

"Anyone who writes an autobiographical work at the age of 34 is, at best, presumptuous. It occurred to me that it was time to set the record straight."

"Television is intensely personal."

"News reporting is a cycle: No matter how much you work at sending a message, it's only successful if it's received."

"How valuable NBC Magazine was in my career is questionable."

"Every time I am in danger of believing the glamour of my own press, some incident inevitably brings me back to earth."

"To get it first is important - but more important is to get it right."

"It had not occurred to me that marriage requires the same effort as a career. And unlike a career, marriage requires a joint effort."

"No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one."

"Our free enterprise system of disseminating information is collectively referred to as The Media. But there is no collective."

"When for so long you can't get a job for reasons that seem specious, you you finally do have it, you are constantly afraid of losing it."

"Men still control the news, both on and off camera."

"A press card does not provide you with an invisible shield. You're flesh and blood."

"When I first anchored in 1970, I had never seen a woman anchor a news show."

"Many senators have developed a canny sense of what will play best for the audience."

"The news anchor is exactly that - an anchor, a center, a focus."

"The code of the road is, if there is anything to eat, eat; if there is a place to sit, sit; if there is a restroom, go."

"Newscasters cannot call attention to themselves by being too attractive or too unattractive."

"Shootouts are not gunfights of honor, they're gang wars and racial riots."

"My goal was to be a network correspondent by the time I was 30."

"Never refuse an assignment except when there is a conflict of interest, a potential of danger to you or your family, or you hold a strongly biased attitude about the subject under focus."