I've come to recognize what I call my 'inside interests.' Telling stories. And helping people tell their stories is a sort of interpersonal gardening. My work at NBC News was to report the news but in hindsight I often tried to look for some insight to share that might spark a moment of recognition in a viewer.

Italy has piled up huge public debt because the successive governments were too close to the life of ordinary citizens too willing to please the requests of everybody thereby acting against the interests of future generations.

The vote is a trust more delicate than any other for it involves not just the interests of the voter but his life honor and future as well.

I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind. When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations it gives them hope in their own life.

Friendship can only exist between persons with similar interests and points of view. Man and woman by the conventions of society are born with different interests and different points of view.

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.

Men like me who merely wish to establish political freedom will in such circumstances lose all their influence and others will get influence who may become dangerous to all established interests whatsoever.

I do believe that freedom isn't free - but today the corporate and political right wing is trying to cheapen this truly American value. They've been cynically using the word 'freedom' to rally the American public against its own best interests.

An open society is a society which allows its members the greatest possible degree of freedom in pursuing their interests compatible with the interests of others.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.