Jessica Savitch Quotes

#1. The idea of stardom was difficult to grasp. It was like being schizophrenic; there was her, the woman on television, and the real me.

Jessica Savitch

#2. Texas was defined by its larger-than-life characters, particularly politicians.

Jessica Savitch

#3. To get it first is important - but more important is to get it right.

Jessica Savitch

#4. News events are like Texas weather. If you don't like it, wait a minute.

Jessica Savitch

#5. The bad news is that 50 people died in a hotel fire; the good news is that we got exclusive footage.

Jessica Savitch

#6. I have had a lifelong phobia of snakes.

Jessica Savitch

#7. In real life, events seem much less dramatic.

Jessica Savitch

#8. The most important event I covered was the Panama Canal debate, which dragged on for months.

Jessica Savitch

#9. Women may not have it easy, but we are given a fairer chance to reach for the top.

Jessica Savitch

#10. When I first anchored in 1970, I had never seen a woman anchor a news show.

Jessica Savitch

#11. Shootouts are not gunfights of honor, they're gang wars and racial riots.

Jessica Savitch

#12. The minute viewers callin or write about your looks, they were not listening to what you were saying.

Jessica Savitch

#13. Anyone who writes an autobiographical work at the age of 34 is, at best, presumptuous. It occurred to me that it was time to set the record straight.

Jessica Savitch

#14. What is the value of sticking a microphone in a man's face right after he has learned of his wife's death?

Jessica Savitch

#15. One reason I left local news was that I was tired of the constant musical chairs among news directors.

Jessica Savitch

#16. The single life is not one I willingly chose for myself.

Jessica Savitch

#17. By far my most perilous assignment was covering a tank car explosion.

Jessica Savitch

#18. I hadn't realized until I covered the police beat just how seedy crime is.

Jessica Savitch

#19. How valuable NBC Magazine was in my career is questionable.

Jessica Savitch

#20. No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.

Jessica Savitch

#21. You can easily die racing to cover a bank robbery as you can in a war zone.

Jessica Savitch

#22. The code of the road is, if there is anything to eat, eat; if there is a place to sit, sit; if there is a restroom, go.

Jessica Savitch

#23. In the beginning, my mother humored me when I told her I wanted to be a reporter.

Jessica Savitch

#24. When I was a little girl in the 1950s, it would not have been possible for me to say, I want to be an anchorwoman when I grow up.

Jessica Savitch

#25. Some news managers have been slow to grasp that good television news is always substance over form.

Jessica Savitch

#26. When for so long you can't get a job for reasons that seem specious, you you finally do have it, you are constantly afraid of losing it.

Jessica Savitch

#27. A fact of modern life is that it takes women longer to get ready than men.

Jessica Savitch

#28. My most lucrative job in college was a stint as the regional Dodge Girl.

Jessica Savitch

#29. Never refuse an assignment except when there is a conflict of interest, a potential of danger to you or your family, or you hold a strongly biased attitude about the subject under focus.

Jessica Savitch

#30. Although I was entirely relaxed on camera, if I had to stand up and say something to an assembled group of people, I was rendered all but inarticulate.

Jessica Savitch

#31. Walking into a room filled with people you don't know but who know you brings out your worst vulnerabilities.

Jessica Savitch

#32. I very much wanted to be accepted by my peers, to be considered a serious journalist.

Jessica Savitch

#33. My current goal is to place a moratorium on goals.

Jessica Savitch

#34. The news anchor is exactly that - an anchor, a center, a focus.

Jessica Savitch

#35. Television news is a delicate balance of serving public good and private gain.

Jessica Savitch

#36. Being a novelty had its advantages.

Jessica Savitch

#37. Women were seldom given quality assignments or adequate air time.

Jessica Savitch

#38. A press card does not provide you with an invisible shield. You're flesh and blood.

Jessica Savitch

#39. Mistakes are not always the result of someone's ineptitude.

Jessica Savitch

#40. It is my belief that one's salary is between an individual and the IRS.

Jessica Savitch

#41. I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise.

Jessica Savitch

#42. In every interview I have ever read or seen or taken part in, the final question in our future-oriented society is always, What next?

Jessica Savitch

#43. Many senators have developed a canny sense of what will play best for the audience.

Jessica Savitch

#44. I don't exactly know what it means to be ready. A cake when the oven timer goes off? Am I fully baked, or only half-baked?

Jessica Savitch

#45. News events cannot be controlled, nor can newscasts be mapped out like entertainment shows.

Jessica Savitch

#46. My goal was to be a network correspondent by the time I was 30.

Jessica Savitch

#47. It had not occurred to me that marriage requires the same effort as a career. And unlike a career, marriage requires a joint effort.

Jessica Savitch

#48. Our free enterprise system of disseminating information is collectively referred to as The Media. But there is no collective.

Jessica Savitch

#49. Men still control the news, both on and off camera.

Jessica Savitch

#50. For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.

Jessica Savitch

#51. Every time I am in danger of believing the glamour of my own press, some incident inevitably brings me back to earth.

Jessica Savitch

#52. Women didn't want to watch other women on television because they were jealous of their husbands' diverted attention.

Jessica Savitch

#53. In interviews I gave early on in my career, I was quoted as saying it was possible to have it all: a dynamic job, marriage, and children. In some respects, I was a social adolescent.

Jessica Savitch

#54. Television is intensely personal.

Jessica Savitch

#55. The relationship between talent and management is uneasy, at best.

Jessica Savitch

#56. The latest wrinkle is on wrinkles. There is a widespread belief that women can't grow old in television news.

Jessica Savitch

#57. The better the coverage, the more discriminating the viewer.

Jessica Savitch

#58. Newscasters cannot call attention to themselves by being too attractive or too unattractive.

Jessica Savitch

#59. News reporting is a cycle: No matter how much you work at sending a message, it's only successful if it's received.

Jessica Savitch