David Remnick

“The most important quality for a journalist is curiosity.”

“The digital world has been both a blessing and a curse for journalism.”

“The first thing you have to do is listen.”

“What I want from a good story is to be transported.”

“I think the job of a reporter is to fail less, to fail better.”

“Journalism, at its best, is a process of learning.”

“History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

“You can't do this work if you're not an optimist.”

“The New Yorker has been a kind of ongoing, unfinished, glorious university.”

“The challenge is to be fair, to be accurate, and to be interesting.”

“I think the best stories are the ones that are both timely and timeless.”

“In the end, what you're trying to do is get at some version of the truth.”

“You have to be willing to be surprised. If you're not, you're not a very good reporter.”

“Reading is the most important thing I do. It's my job, but it's also my pleasure.”

“A great magazine is a conversation with its readers.”

“There is no substitute for shoe-leather reporting.”

“I think nostalgia is a toxic impulse.”

“Politics is a human drama, and it should be covered as such.”

“Objectivity is a complicated ideal, but the pursuit of it is essential.”

“The worst thing a writer can do is to be boring.”