Brian Lamb

“It's very nice to be able to write something you don't have to get four other people to agree with before it can become authoritative.”

“If you get too excited about any one interview, you're making a mistake, because people do cancel.”

“I'm anti-big power. I don't know if that's populist or not.”

“Who cares if a movie star has an opinion unless the person is very well informed?”

“The Purdue education was fine, but I wasn't ready to learn when I was at Purdue.”

“My number one goal was not getting 'A's' - and I proved it. I was a 'C' student. You have to be ready to learn. If you're not interesting in learning, it doesn't work. As I grew older and wanted to learn and desperately wanted inside information, learning was a lot easier.”

“The greatest thing about the call-in show is that you always felt like you were on a high wire without a net.”

“More than anything else, we need in this society the opportunity for people to tell us what they think without being told that they're either dumb, or stupid, or uninformed.”

“Some people when they get older are so firm in their beliefs that you'll never move them.”

“You can't guarantee everything's going to be televised.”

“We have more voices from more points of view on the C-SPAN call-in show than I've heard anywhere else. You can literally tune us in every day and hear it all. You can't control it, and you shouldn't control it.”

“I've never been a member of a political party, but people will superimpose on you what they want.”

“My basic approach to interviewing is to ask the basic questions that might even sound naive, or not intellectual. Sometimes when you ask the simple questions like 'Who are you?' or 'What do you do?' you learn the most.”

“I don't like swearing on the air. As a matter of fact, I'm not a prude, but... I watch HBO and some of the comedy stuff, and I'm constantly asking myself, 'Why have we gone there?' It seems like it's unfortunate. It's so cheap. It's so easy.”

“It's easier to fix damage than it is to create it.”

“From the beginning, we promised folks that they'll see whatever event we cover in its entirety, from gavel to gavel - whether it's the House of Representatives or the Senate. That's the whole reason for being.”

“I vote in every general election, but I'm not a party member or an ideologue. I've never told anyone who I've voted for.”

“I don't, for the record, have a Tweety Bird fetish.”

“I've been invited to appear on Letterman, but they wanted me to talk about a funny videotape of Congress. 'Bring us your outtakes!' That's not our job.”

“I think, in some ways, I like it when people tell me what they're thinking. I would rather have it that way than masquerade as if you're totally unbiased and objective.”