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"I really want to keep my mind open to all possibilities. If I make up my mind in advance what I believe about something ... I stop listening. We all stop listening once you've made up your mind … I want to be curious. I want to maintain my curiosity about what the answers to the question might be. And I want to hold out for the possibility that someone will surprise me." 

"So few places do what we do. If you're really interested in information, you want to know how things work. So the person that absorbs what we do walks away saying, 'I know just a lot more than I ever thought I would about human nature, about what these issues are about, about the similarity in the way politicians deal with these subjects.' If they're terribly partisan, they never get over that. You think your side's always right. So you see what you want to see."

"We wanted {our characters} to be as close to ourselves as we could get so it would be effective. Some people liked us, some people hated us."

"You don't control the press. You might try to direct them and lead them, but you sure as hell are not gonna control them." 

"The main thing is to remain truthful. To heck with the audience, you're doing it for yourself."

"You always learn from your experiences. You know, I never was a screamer, but I saw how other people would sometimes use that way to get things done. Learn to be very flexible and not to be rigid. Don't get discouraged. Keep at it and be persistent, but don't be persistent in a way that you rub somebody the wrong way. And somehow you'll get it done. And if you don't, you then, you adjust… It was a challenge and I enjoyed it. And it was rewarding once it got done."

"It's a matter of manipulating the Nielsen meters and being smart enough and consistent enough to hold that second quarter hour, and that brings your ratings up. The teases before the breaks are so important. The minute you go to the break the audience leaves. Research tells us that. So we've just got to get them back."