Jim Lehrer Quotes

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

I'm not in the judgment part of journalism.

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

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.

No two people see things the same way.

I'm in the reporting part of journalism.

A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly between two candidates, and that's it.

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

I told the truth about steroids and human growth hormone. I injected those drugs into the body of Roger Clemens at his direction.
Unfortunately, Roger has denied this and has led a full-court attack on my credibility

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

The death rate among Marines in Iraq has been more than double that of the other services.

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

I'm an expert on the NewsHour and it isn't how I practice journalism. I am not involved in the story. I serve only as a reporter or someone asking questions. I am not the story.

If we're going to have debates, let's have real debates.

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

I'm in the civil discourse business. I think it takes all kinds. And more power to everybody.

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

I've always said this and finally I had a chance to demonstrate it: The moderator should be seen little and heard even less. It is up to the candidates to ask the follow-up questions and challenge one another.

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

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

I came from a family of Marines into the family of Marines.

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

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

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.

I'm not saying Senator Mitchell's report is entirely wrong. I am saying Brian McNamee's statements about me are wrong. Let me be clear: I have never taken steroids or HGH.

As I say, I'm a discourse advocate. What form it comes is less important to me than the fact that there is discourse.

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

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.

My conscience is clear.

Take risks ... be willing to put your mind and your spirit, your time and your energy, your stomach and your emotions on the line. To search for a safe place, to search for an end to a rainbow, is to search for a place that you will hate once you find it. The soul must be nourished along with the bank account and the resume. The best nourishment for any soul is to create your own risks.

Best I can do for them is to give them every piece of information I can find and let them make the judgments. That's just my basic view of my function as a journalist.

There are very few really stark black and white stories.

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

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.

In my case, I was covering politics in Texas as a newspaper man in the 1960's.

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

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.

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.

I'm not in the being-annoyed business.

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