Take a random selection of photographs of America in 2012 and 2002 and 1992 and, except for the skinny jeans and the porkpie hats, you’ll be hard-pressed to tell the years in which the pictures were taken. – Graydon Carter
To a young kid growing up in Canada, America seemed to be crazy about the future; dazzled by it. – Graydon Carter
My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences. – Graydon Carter
Those who remember New York in the 1970s, as I do, look back on a city that had hit a very rough patch – decaying, bankrupt, and crime-ridden. But fun. – Graydon Carter
In America, the top 1 percent led the country into war and economic devastation, leaving the less fortunate to fight for one and pay for both. – Graydon Carter
In 2004, I wrote ‘What We’ve Lost,’ a book about the Bush administration. It sold only reasonably well, in part, I think, because the book was a horrific downer, an unrelenting account of the administration’s actions, bungles, deceptions, half-truths, untruths, and downright corruptions. – Graydon Carter
Let’s face it, who among us wouldn’t take a pill or potion that would make us better at our job? Goodness knows, we abuse substances for just about everything in our personal lives; why not in our professional lives as well? – Graydon Carter
‘Green’ does not have to mean the sort of hair-shirt, wood-burning-stove sensibility of the ’70s. Green can and should be sleek and modern. – Graydon Carter
Issues such as transparency often boil down to which side of – pick a number – 40 you’re on. Under 40, and transparency is generally considered a good thing for society. Over 40, and one generally chooses privacy over transparency. On every side of this issue, hypocrisy abounds. – Graydon Carter
Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer, and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from – dare I say it – God. – Graydon Carter
It’s estimated that across Africa 100 elephants are killed for their tusks every day. It takes nothing more than simple math to get to what that adds up to in a year, and it’s a distressing figure. – Graydon Carter
People think they have to be ambitious. But at a certain age, all you want is to be around nice, decent people. – Graydon Carter
I always thought eating what you wanted was one of those aspects of adulthood to be looked forward to when you were a child. – Graydon Carter
Water-boarding can result in damage to the lungs and the brain, as well as long-term psychological trauma. – Graydon Carter
As any editor will tell you, startling newsroom revelations are generally met with queries about where the information came from and how the reporter got it. Seriously startling revelations are followed by the vetting of libel lawyers. – Graydon Carter
It could fairly be said that the U.S. is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world. As our neighbors to the south elect left-wing or even socialist governments, we are lurching further to the right. As Europe becomes less engaged to the Church, we are becoming more fundamentalist. – Graydon Carter
You know, I used to warm the thermometer on the light bulb… I was really good at being sick. I could forge my mother’s signature on a sick note so well I was hardly ever at school. – Graydon Carter
Americans who grew up in the 1930s or 1940s still have some fleeting memory of what the country was like before it became the steroidal superpower it is today. – Graydon Carter
‘The Guardian,’ with its deep journalistic traditions, is careful about context and explanation. It sees itself as a gatekeeper, and it worries about consequences. – Graydon Carter
Satire works best when it hews close to the line between the outlandish and the possible – and as that line continues to grow thinner, the satirist’s task becomes ever more difficult. – Graydon Carter
Television offers a range and scope, and a degree of creativity and daring, that the bottom-line, global-audience-obsessed, brand-driven movie industry just can’t compete with. – Graydon Carter
I really don’t despise anyone. But there is a list of a half dozen people I would prefer never to hear from or see again. – Graydon Carter
It could fairly be said that America, during the Bush years, has entered an Age of Denial – arguably the first stage of a nation’s decline. – Graydon Carter
I think being Canadian helps you as a journalist in America, because you’re sort of on the outside watching this big party going on, and you’re sort of taking mental notes as it goes on. I think if you’re in the party the whole time, you don’t notice it as much. And I think Canadians are very good observers of American culture. – Graydon Carter
The fact is that movie stars are as insecure as the rest of us – if not more so. Many live in a luxurious bubble in which their best friends are their trainer, their hairdresser, their publicist, and their Kabbalah instructor. – Graydon Carter
