Roone Arledge Quotes

#1. ABC wouldn't be a player in the news major leagues until the 1970s, when Roone Arledge brought to ABC News the energy and programming approach he had applied to ABC Sports.

Tom Brokaw

#2. I don't think the news department will have to lie down and play dead like it has in the past. By and large the network has been understanding, but then so have I.

Roone Arledge

#3. Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.

Danny Kaye

#4. One of the reasons why when Elvis dies or the Son of Sam is captured ABC News' ratings go up is because people who don't normally watch news are watching then. The question is, do you want to attract people who don't watch network news or fight over the people who do?

Roone Arledge

#5. I think people tuned in a lot to see Barbara when she first came here and they just didn't like the show they saw. I think it was dull. It was sterile.

Roone Arledge

#6. One of the towering people in this industry said, why don't you go and make a five-year contract with somebody, make yourself several million dollars and put it away, then go and do whatever you want, work for public TV if you want.

Roone Arledge

#7. Planets are too dim to be detected with existing equipment, far away, except in these very special circumstances where they're seen by their gravitational effect.

Murray Gell-Mann

#8. I think we have to stand up against what is unacceptable, and to push the boundaries and reclaim a more humane way of being in the world, so that we can extend our compassionate intelligence and begin to work with a strengthened will and imagination that can take us into the future.

Terry Tempest Williams

#9. I respect the game that goes on of putting this against that, but I don't respect, nor do I enjoy, an awful lot of the actual programs that go on the air.

Roone Arledge

#10. I think everything is going to be devastatingly sad - when the phone rings, I know somebody in my family's been hurt, somebody's going to die. I'm sure a therapist would go, 'That's not a good way to live,' but every time it's not that bad thing, I'm so thankful and appreciative.

Sandra Bullock

#11. If you don't have the rights, you can't do the show.

Roone Arledge

#12. But unlike the setup in most organizations, where there's an administrator on top and creative people or doers underneath, I'm basically a doer and I like to have administrative people underneath me.

Roone Arledge

#13. I don't think people realize the extent to which TV networks are hurt when they carry public broadcasting. I think the estimate is that they lose a half-million dollars for a half day's programming.

Roone Arledge

#14. In the past ABC has made half-hearted efforts or, worse, cosmetic efforts, to do something about news and I wasn't certain about what their real aim was - nor am I now.

Roone Arledge

#15. Think of Zen, of the Void, of Good and Evil and you are bound hand and foot. Think only and entirely and completely of what you are doing at the moment and you are free as a bird.

Reginald Horace Blyth

#16. Every person working in sports journalism today owes a tremendous debt to Howard Cosell. His greatest contribution was elevating sports reporting out of daily play-by-play and placing it in the larger context of society.

Roone Arledge

#17. But if you cover the World Series on the news or do a feature on an Ali boxing match then all of a sudden ears go up all over the place and people say what the hell are you doing. The reason for that is that we're doing something that people are really interested in.

Roone Arledge

#18. I want everybody in the news business to think of ABC before they go any place else. If it costs us an extra few thousand dollars to do that, what does it mean?

Roone Arledge

#19. I'm sensitive about my image of being hard to reach.

Roone Arledge

#20. I think we have erred on the side of being too conservative so far, to tell you the truth.

Roone Arledge

#21. If everyone was perfect then I am pretty sure I would be perfect.

Brian Randleas

#22. People also don't care about the daily comings and goings of diplomats and yet we must report it.

Roone Arledge

#23. Television is a powerful medium that has to be used for something better than sitcoms and police shows. On the other hand, if you don't recognize the forces that play on what people watch and what they don't then you're a fool and you should be in a different business.

Roone Arledge

#24. I don't expect to win every battle but I think Fred Pierce has enough respect for me that I can go fight my battles and win my share.

Roone Arledge

#25. People essentially like local news better than network news.

Roone Arledge

#26. In fact, I had a series of offers which would have brought me a lot of money to make films and package TV programs. There were people who said to me, we'll put a million dollars in your bank account tomorrow, which is a hard thing to turn down.

Roone Arledge

#27. I don't think any industry was ever as closely scrutinized and written about and constantly in the public eye as television.

Roone Arledge

#28. these lovely, lying children, I saw very clearly that there was no redemption here.

Suki Kim

#29. Most of what we report from Congress they don't care about unless it affects them directly.

Roone Arledge

#30. You can only make so much money in life and only enjoy so many creature comforts. The important thing is to do something meaningful-to leave something behind.

Roone Arledge

#31. The Goddess has a fourth face. It is secret, and you should prey, as I do, as I do Igraine, that Morgause will never wear that face.

Marion Zimmer Bradley

#32. The current wisdom now is that if the three networks are covering the news the same way the difference is the anchor people. I think that won't be true in the future.

Roone Arledge

#33. Having read several prize-winning novels, Fancy was confident that she now knew the recipe:
1. Write a simple narrative.
2. Make a long list.
3. Scatter the contents of your list throughout your narrative.

Jaclyn Moriarty