He types his labored column—weary drudge! Senile fudge and solemn: spare, editor, to condemn these dry leaves of his autumn.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
I get up in the morning with an idea for a three-volume novel and by nightfall it’s a paragraph in my column.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Author
You will generally find that the person who doesn’t give a continental what the newspapers say about ‘im either one way or the other subscribes to a press clipping bureau anyway.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
I’d get into a room and disappear into the woodwork. Now the rooms are so crowded with reporters getting behind-the-scenes stories that nobody can get behind-the-scenes stories.
—Theodore H. White (1915–86) American Journalist, Historian, Novelist
In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
To write weekly, to write daily, to write shortly, to write for busy people catching trains in the morning or for tired people coming home in the evening, is a heartbreaking task for men who know good writing from bad.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
Like Eden’s dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Reasons for not keeping a notebook: 1) the ambiguity of the reader
—Lionel Trilling (1905–75) American Literary Critic
Journalists aren’t supposed to praise things. It’s a violation of work rules almost as serious as buying drinks with our own money or absolving the CIA of something.
—P. J. O’Rourke (b.1947) American Journalist, Political Satirist
Journalism consists largely in saying “Lord James is dead” to people who never knew Lord James was alive.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
I would sooner call myself a journalist than an author for a journalist is a journeyman.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.
—Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American Journalist
The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The real news is bad news.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
If, for instance, they have heard something from the postman, they attribute it to “a semi-official statement”; if they have fallen into conversation with a stranger at a bar, they can conscientiously describe him as “a source that has hitherto proved unimpeachable.” It is only when the journalist is reporting a whim of his own, and one to which he attaches minor importance, that he defines it as the opinion of “well-informed circles.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself.
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Editor, Politician, Author
A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
The daily newspaper sustains the same relation to the young writer as the hospital to the medical student.
—George Horace Lorimer (1867–1937) American Editor, Publisher, Philanthropist
In journalism it is simpler to sound off than it is to find out. It is more elegant to pontificate than it is to sweat.
—Harold Evans (1925–2020) British-American Journalist, Writer
The journalist holds up an umbrella, protecting society from the fiery hail of conscience.
—George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish Author, Poet, Editor, Critic, Painter
I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.
—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American Christian Theologian
Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
Get your facts first, and then you can distort ’em as you please.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The paper which obtains a reputation for publishing authentic news and only that which is fit to print, … will steadily increase its influence.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
I am a journalist and, under the modern journalist’s code of Olympian objectivity (and total purity of motive), I am absolved of responsibility. We journalists don’t have to step on roaches. All we have to do is turn on the kitchen light and watch the critters scurry.
—P. J. O’Rourke (b.1947) American Journalist, Political Satirist
We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused—in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible. On the other hand, the lightness of the artillery should not degenerate into pop-gunnery—by which term we may designate the character of the greater portion of the newspaper press—their sole legitimate object being the discussion of ephemeral matters in an ephemeral manner.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
Bad manners make a journalist.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Journalism is literature in a hurry.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
Journalism is concerned with events, poetry with feelings. Journalism is concerned with the look of the world, poetry with the feel of the world.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
A long life in journalism convinced me many presidents ago that there should be a large air space between a journalist and the head of a state.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Journalism is the first rough draft of history.
—Indian Proverb
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.
—A. J. Liebling (1904–63) American Journalist, Press Critic
Every journalist owes tribute to the evil one.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil – remain detached from the great
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
—James Boswell (1740–95) Scottish Biographer, Diarist
The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Temple of Fame, in which they put up and take down portraits all day long and make such a hammering you can’t hear yourself speak.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.
—Horace Greeley (1811–72) American Elected Rep, Politician, Reformer, Editor
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
Opinionated writing is always the most difficult… simply because it involves retaining in the cold morning-after crystal of the printed word the burning flow of molten feeling.
—Gavin Lyall (1932–2003) English Spy Fiction Writer