A biography for Tom Brokawhasn’t been written yet.
“One of the advantages of being a national journalist of some recognition is that you come across high-profile people, and many become your friends.”
“I had fractures in my spine that had to be repaired that came as a big surprise; nobody warned me that I might get some really severe, threatening fractures. It was painful, and I lost two inches of height, bang!”
“After 50 years of smoking unfiltered cigarettes, my father died, too young, of a massive heart attack. He was 69. It's almost certain that all those years of nicotine inhalation were a major contributor to his clogged arteries.”
“I think people of my generation became journalists - you know, right after the broadcast pioneer fathers - because we wanted to report the big stories.”
“John F. Kennedy, the man I had thought would define the political ideal for the rest of my days, was suddenly gone in the senseless violence of a single moment.”
“We don't play the celebrity business in our family.”
“The daunting task of being a mother, a wife, and an independent career or professional person is really taxing.”
“I'm not going to sit on the porch of the old anchorman's home with a drool cup.”
“Judy Miller is the most innocent person in this case. I really thought that was outrageous that she was jailed and we needed as journalists to draw a line in the sand in a strong but thoughtful way.”
“In our family, where we began with no money, we like to say that we have discovered that God invented money so those who have it can help others.”
“I had four compression fractures in my spine. They were repaired, but it cost me two inches of height.”
“I was a college dropout, hitchhiking across the Midwest. That was part of the old, adventurous spirit.”
“What I quickly learned after my diagnosis is that the world of a cancer patient has many parts and a good deal of uncertainty.”
“The conceit of an anchorman is we never think we're going to die, I suppose.”
“1920 was an auspicious year for a young person to enter the world as an American citizen.”
“It's all storytelling, you know. That's what journalism is all about.”
“I started writing a journal, and I was learning so much along the way. How to deal with your family, how to deal with your friends.”
“TV is a fickle business. I'm only good for the length of my contract.”
“Your grandparents came of age in the Great Depression, when everyday life was about deprivation and sacrifice, when the economic conditions of the time were so grave and so unrelenting it would have been easy enough for the American dream to fade away.”
“David Brinkley was an icon of modern broadcast journalism, a brilliant writer who could say in a few words what the country needed to hear during times of crisis, tragedy and triumph.”