“Media bias is a huge thing. I think about it every day and in everything I do. The best way to get around it is to have people of different backgrounds, ethnicities and opinions in a room coming up with what you’re going to cover. I’m a big believer in not wearing my opinion on my sleeve. Facts are facts.”
Anderson Cooper, CNN News anchor, Turner Construction Student Forum, Nov. 14, 2006

“Presidential libraries are of enormous value. The only way to learn about history is to understand when things went wrong and when things went right, and I think it would be an enormous tribute to all of you here to have that [George W. Bush] library.”
Doris Kearns Goodwin, historian and author, The Lacerte Family Lecture, Tate Distinguished Lecture Series, Jan. 16, 2007

“Lia Lee, this little child, was connected to a thread, and the thread was connected to a string, and the string was connected to a rope, and if I pulled hard enough, that rope might be connected to the entire universe. I was writing a book about an epileptic Hmong toddler, but it was also about communication and family and health and sickness and war and peace.”
Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Al & Sadye Gartner Honors Lecture, Nov. 3, 2006

“What we read the Quran to be saying depends on who reads it, how, what kind of methodology is used, and the circumstances and context. Historically, only males have been authorized to interpret it, and they have done so piecemeal and always within patriarchal societies. Perhaps it should not surprise us that they have read it as privileging themselves.”
Asma Barlas, author of “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, SMU’s 42nd annual Women’s Symposium, March 1, 2007

“A great many high schools no longer make the study of civics and government a requirement for graduation. Our public schools have to teach liberty to the leaders of tomorrow. All of our young people in public schools are liberty apprentices. An informed citizenry is needed to maintain an independent judiciary. This is one of our most precious assets in this country.”
Sandra Day O’Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Dedman School of Law judicial conference, April 4, 2007

“I’ve always believed there was a bigger role for storytelling in economics and the social sciences than in most academic subjects. You have to somehow create a storyline as a way of marketing your own work. Many of my papers and seminars have a big storytelling component to them. For instance, my paper on gangs tries to tell a story about how that gang worked. It wins people over to understanding your arguments. That kind of persuasion is really important.”
Steve Levitt, author of Freakonomics, Turner Construction Student Forum, March 27, 2007