A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.
—John Hersey (1914–93) American Novelist, Journalist
Journalism is the entertainment business.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in Fleet Street.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
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
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
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
Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.
—A. J. Liebling (1904–63) American Journalist, Press Critic
The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.
—Carl Bernstein (1944–73) American Journalist, Writer
Write the news as if your very life depended on it. It does!
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
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
People accuse journalism of being too personal; but to me it has always seemed far too impersonal. It is charged with tearing away the veils from private life; but it seems to me to be always dropping diaphanous but blinding veils between men and men. The Yellow Press is abused for exposing facts which are private; I wish the Yellow Press did anything so valuable. It is exactly the decisive individual touches that it never gives; and a proof of this is that after one has met a man a million times in the newspapers it is always a complete shock and reversal to meet him in real life.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
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
The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
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 (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
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
Journalists are like dogs, when ever anything moves they begin to bark.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
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