Sam Donaldson Quotes

• The questions don't do the damage. Only the answers do.

  Sam Donaldson

  Answers, Damage, Media Training

  Sam Donaldson (1988). “Hold On, Mr. President”, Fawcett Books

  47 Copy quote

• So when I cover the president, I try to remember two things: First, if you don't ask, you don't find out; and second, the questions don't do the damage. Only the answers do.

  Sam Donaldson

  Two, Trying, President

  Sam Donaldson (1988). “Hold On, Mr. President”, Fawcett Books

  7 Copy quote

• I'd rather work with someone who's good at their job but doesn't like me, than someone who likes me but is a ninny.

  Sam Donaldson

  Inspirational, Jobs, Likes

  12 Copy quote

• Let's face it: Many on the political right believe this president ought not to be there - they oppose him not for his polices and political view but for who he is, an African American!

  Sam Donaldson

  Believe, Views, Political

  "Sam Donaldson Rejects Comparison To Reporter Who Interrupted Obama". Donaldson's email to The Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 16, 2012.

  8 Copy quote

• Call me a braggart, call me arrogant. People at ABC (and elsewhere) have called me worse. But when you need the job done on deadline, you'll call me.

  Sam Donaldson

  Jobs, People, Needs

  Sam Donaldson (1988). “Hold On, Mr. President”, Fawcett Books

  18 Copy quote

• If you have a setback, and you're not doing well and then you overcome it somehow, it always sticks with you. You know it could happen again.

  Sam Donaldson

  Overcoming, Sticks, Wells

  7 Copy quote

• If you sent me to cover a pie-baking contest on Mother's Day, I'm going to ask dear old Mom why she used artificial sweetener or stole the apples!

  Sam Donaldson

  Mom, Mother, Apples

  7 Copy quote

• The press . . . traditionally sides with authority and the establishment.

  Sam Donaldson

  Sides, Authority, Establishment

  4 Copy quote

• I don't know many people, if any, who have had some straight line toward success. I mean, they start here, they work hard, they've got what it takes, and they just go straight to the top over some number of years. Most people get a little failure.

  Sam Donaldson

  Success, Congratulations, Hard Work

  4 Copy quote

• In 27 years of reporting from Washington, I've never heard a President admit he made a mistake.

  Sam Donaldson

  Mistake, Years, President

  4 Copy quote

• Some days the competition would beat me and I'd go home thinking awful thoughts, want to hide under the bed, depressed. But of course, in the news business, when you're working a daily news broadcast, you get your victories and defeats every day.

  Sam Donaldson

  Home, Thinking, Victory And Defeat

  4 Copy quote

• I saw a large, red dried swath that I immediately identified clearly as blood. I covered the war in Vietnam. I saw a lot of it [blood] there.

  Sam Donaldson

  War, Blood, Vietnam

  8 Copy quote

• And really, the basis, I think, of achieving some success in what I want to do today comes from my mother's push to get me to read and to make something of myself from the standpoint of an education.

  Sam Donaldson

  Mother, Thinking, Want

  8 Copy quote

• And on election night I'd go down to city hall in El Paso, Texas and cover the election. In those days, of course, we didn't have exit polls. You didn't know who had won the election until they actually counted the votes. I thought that was exciting too.

  Sam Donaldson

  Night, Texas, Cities

  11 Copy quote

• It wasn't until the late '70s that a lot of people knew me.

  Sam Donaldson

  People, Late

  4 Copy quote

• My personal opinion is that guns kill people.

  Sam Donaldson

  Gun, Personal Opinions, People

  4 Copy quote

• There was a little bit of ham in me. And there's a lot of people say there's a lot of ham in me.

  Sam Donaldson

  People, Ham, Littles

  8 Copy quote

• It was kind of exciting being on the radio. Not everybody was on the radio.

  Sam Donaldson

  Radio, Kind, Exciting

  7 Copy quote

• I was a typical farm boy. I liked the farm. I enjoyed the things that you do on a farm, go down to the drainage ditch and fish, and look at the crawfish and pick a little cotton.

  Sam Donaldson

  Boys, Agriculture, Typical

  24 Copy quote

• News conferences are the only chance the American public has to see Ronald Reagan use his mind.

  Sam Donaldson

  Mind, News, Use

  6 Copy quote

• And from a military school which taught me that to fit into society, you can't just do anything you damn well please because it will suit you. And that it's much better to be with the winners than it is with the losers.

  Sam Donaldson

  Military, School, Suits You

  4 Copy quote

• As I went to college, I went into radio and television. Now I suppose most people think that's one step ahead of basket weaving as a major in college, but it was part of the journalism department.

  Sam Donaldson

  College, Thinking, People

  8 Copy quote

• The President's very shrewd

  Sam Donaldson

  Stupid, Humorous, President

  4 Copy quote

• But in 1941, on December 8th, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, my mother bought a radio and we listened to the war news. We'd not had a radio up to that time. I was born in 1934, so I was seven years of age.

  Sam Donaldson

  Mother, War, Years

  7 Copy quote

• But as a young kid, I never did, really have an ambition to be a farmer. I never thought, gee, I would like to farm, and I want to raise these crops. I didn't quite know what I wanted to do.

  Sam Donaldson

  Ambition, Kids, Want

  6 Copy quote

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