Christiane Amanpour quotes: on how to lead, why journalism matters, climbing the corporate ladder, her proudest achievement and more.
“Have a dream. Have a passion. Know that there’s no such thing as an overnight success.”
“You have to work hard to get to a place of competence, achievement and success.”
“Ask yourself: ‘What does success mean?’ I hope it doesn’t just mean money and fame. I hope it means a sense of purpose, a sense of mission, a sense of being part of a community, part of a civil society.”
“Love what you do and do what you love. Find something in this world that you love, and be prepared to work your butt off to get where you want to go.”
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
“It’s about talent and passion. It’s about people believing that you’re the real deal.”
“I would give women and men the same advice, and that is: follow your heart, follow your gut, follow your instincts.”
“Perhaps the most important thing I could say is to never be thrown by failure and mistakes. Each and everything that happens, even if it was not what you hoped would happen, is a valuable, life-learning tool. And you will only achieve success if you know how to learn from your failures and mistakes. It’s vital.”
“What you do, what you say, how you react to critical situations defines not just the moment, but it defines and shapes you.”
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”
“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”
“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: ‘We did it ourselves.'”
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
“I always come back to Nelson Mandela as my own role model. Not just because it’s an easy name, but if you really dig down into what he did, he emerged from nearly 28 years in prison… with forgiveness. He set the stage for a successful South Africa. If he had come out with even a hair on his head that wanted revenge, then it never would’ve worked. He had to look forward and not look back.”
“There were many on his own side who didn’t believe that, who were upset that there wasn’t more accountability, more revenge. I always find that the most remarkable lesson… and it matters today, when our leaders have no concept of consensus, of bipartisanship, of forgiveness, of listening to the story of the other.”
“The time to give women advice is over. Women can do exactly what men can do.”
“There need to be more women running major organizations, the top news organizations, and there just aren’t any. Just like in Hollywood, you still have to have diversity at the top of the studio corporate structure. You still have to have gatekeepers who are diverse. It’s a process, and I’m hoping that this process leads to more women in charge in our business.”
“Never think you can’t do anything because you’re a woman. Everything is open to you as a girl. The future is yours.”
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”
“Our industry has invested so much money in technology that perhaps it’s time to invest in talent, in people.”
“What we do and say and show really matters.”
“I learned a long, long time ago… never to create a false moral or factual equivalence. So I believe in being truthful, not neutral. And I believe we must stop banalizing the truth. We have to be prepared to fight especially hard right now for the truth.”
“There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn’t mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.”
“It’s time to recommit to robust, fact-based reporting, without fear or without favor, on the issues. Don’t stand for being labeled or called ‘lying,’ or ‘crooked,’ or ‘failing.'”
“Without a healthy press, there is not a healthy democracy. We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership.”
“We do it because we’re committed, because we’re believers.”
“Because if we the storytellers don’t do this, then the bad people will win. By continuing to put the truth out, that’s how we fight back.”
“If we don’t respect our profession and we see it frittering away into the realm of triviality and sensationalism, we’ll lose our standing. That won’t be good for democracy. A thriving society must have a thriving press.”
“And I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place. And I really believe good journalism is good business.”
“I strongly believe that journalism is one of the most noble professions, because without an informed world, and without an informed society, we are weak.”
“People are interested if you tell stories well and relevantly.”
“We do it because we’re committed, because we’re believers. Mostly, as I said, a desire to do a bit of good, and the quaint notion that this is what we signed up for, this is the business that we have chosen.”
“I ask people just to look at my body of work. And nobody knows my biases. Do they think I’m against? Do they think I’m for? They don’t know my biases. They don’t know where I come from in this. I just try very hard to report the facts and to tell the stories as best as I can. I am not part of the current crop of opinion journalists or commentary journalists or feelings journalists. I strongly believe that I have to remain in the realm of fact.”
“But 17 years ago, I arrived at CNN with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and with about 100 dollars.”
“I was really just the tea boy to begin with, or the equivalent thereof, but I quickly announced, innocently but very ambitiously, that I wanted to be, I was going to be, a foreign correspondent.”
“I really liked the pictures and the photojournalism and the stories that I was reading in the paper, as well as what I was seeing and witnessing with my own eyes. And I actually thought that this was a great way to make a living, to be out there seeing these world-shaking events.”
“And I worked my way up through every level. I was a writer, I was a producer, I was a field producer, I was a reporter and I am a reporter.”
“I have made my living bearing witness to some of the most horrific events of the end of our century, at the end of the 20th century.”
“Every opportunity I have, I talk about it.”
“I was very lucky in my profession.”
“I still have many years left in me, if I still have a job, but that’s what I’ll tell my son when he’s old enough to torture me with painful questions.”
“I don’t rule anything in or out. I’ve still got a lot of energy, passion, and commitment. I really believe in the power of mass media to do good. I believe that we are indispensable forces in proper functioning democracies and proper civil societies.”
“Im not an American but I have always had the outsiders’ respect for the American people and the American way.”
“From a very young age, I knew the kind of woman I wanted to become: independent.”
“There came a moment where I flipped the switch and said, ‘Okay, self. You can be proud of the work you’ve done. You wanted to be a foreign correspondent, you’re a foreign correspondent. Maybe now it’s time to look for some personal happiness and fulfillment. It took me a couple of years, but I consciously changed myself.”
“I love my child. I love my husband. I love my life. I love going out to good dinners and seeing great plays.”
“My proudest lifetime achievement is my son and my family.”
“There’s not much alone time when you have a kid. I put a lot of energy into being a good mother and wife. Life is fun, things are good, and I’m really lucky.”
Related: Lester Holt quotes.
