In 23 years in newsrooms, I saw consistent and concerted efforts to get stories right. Clearly, the public's not convinced.

That's an area of particular satisfaction, where we made a difference?

Transparency is critical in public health and epidemics laypeople become either effective force-multipliers or stubborn walls.

Motion is the sign of life. Stagnation is the prerequisite of death.

Common sense. Mothers are the last riddle, the worst horror, the only consolation.

Some pretences daunt and discourage us, while others raise us to a brisk assurance.

Give the child good books, then let it alone! Don't plough and harrow its brain, or stretch it on Procrustes-beds of standardization, simplification, and what not!

There is no beast more cruel than man.

The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower. For those people, life was still achievable.

The miracle is to walk on the earth.

To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act...It is a radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love.