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

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As Any Editor Will

Graydon Carter

Topic

Editors

Information

Lawyer

More From Graydon Carter

Every Man In The Back Of Their Minds Would Like To Own A Bar Or A Racehorse.

Men

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Bars

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.

Taken

Years

Jeans

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.

Stars

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I Think The Movie Business Is In Trouble. It's All Movies That You've Seen Before. Everything's A Remake; They Want Things That Are Familiar Rather Than Things That Surprise You.

Thinking

Want

Surprise

Somewhere Along The Way, New York Became All About Money. Or Rather, It Was Always About Money, But It Wasn't All About Money, If You Know What I Mean. New York's Not Geneva Or Zurich Yet, But We're Certainly Heading In That Direction. London Is, Too.

New York

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Zurich

As You Get Older And Fatter, Good Clothes Can Hide A Lot.

Clothes

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.

Dare

Wit

Troublemaker

In This Age Of 24-7 Headlines, The Term 'newsweekly' Seems Almost Quaint.

Age

Quaint

Headlines

Every Minute You Invest In Kids You Get Back Four Times Over.

Kids

Four

Minutes

I Might Wear A Dinner Jacket Once A Year To Our Oscar Party - That's A Big Thing - But I Don't Go To Parties. I'm Social But I'm Not A Socialite Person.

Party

Years

Oscars

History Is Nothing If Not An Epic Tale Of Missed Opportunities.

Epic

Opportunity

Tales

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Looks In The Mirror And Sees A Playboy Of The Old School. And Men Such As Dominique Strauss-kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, And Charlie Sheen No Doubt Look At Berlusconi And Think, 'role Model!' Women, Of Course, Know Otherwise. They See Him As An Aging, Pathetic Buffoon.

School

Men

Thinking

Magazine Stories, The Best Ones Anyway, Are Generally A Combination Of Three Elements: Access, Narrative, And Disclosure.

Three

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Elements

Branding Experts Believe That Just Because They Have Rethought A Company's Image Or Name, The Rest Of Us Will Automatically Fall In Line.

Believe

Fall

Names

Stationery Is Addictive. I Get Mine Made In Paris At Benetton, And Writing On It Gives Me A Strange Thrill.

Writing

Paris

Giving

You Lose Manufacturing Jobs, You Rarely Ever Get Them Back Again.

Jobs

Back Again

Manufacturing

Cod Is More Responsible For The Discovery Of The New World Than Almost Anything Else. Drove The Vikings Across The North Atlantic, And John Cabot Discovered America By Looking For Cod.

Discovery

America

World

Former Vice President Al Gore Has Devoted His Post-administration Years To A Mission To Tell The World About Global Warming. It's Funny, But In His Civilian Life Gore Has Discovered The Voice That Voters Had Trouble Hearing When He Ran For President In 2000. The Voice He Has Found Is Clear, Impassioned, And Moving.

Moving

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Years

I Try To Look After The Really Small Things And The Really Big Things, And Delegate The Stuff In Between.

Only Institutions That Go About The Old-fashioned Business Of Taking In Deposits From Customer A And Lending Them Out To Customer B Should Be Called Banks. The Rest Should Call Themselves What They Are. 'parlors' Would Be Appropriate, Or 'dens' - Words More Suitable To Venerable Betting Pursuits.

Would Be

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Parlor

Conservatives Define Themselves More By Their Hatred Of Liberals Than Anything Else, And, Conversely, Liberals By Their Distaste For Conservatives.

Hatred

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I Don't Think You Can Be A Credible, Modern Candidate For President Without Making The Environment A Major Part Of Your Platform.

Thinking

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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.

Math

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It's No Surprise That The Bush Administration's Bullying Swagger And Blithe Ignorance Have Caused Much Of The Muslim World To Hold The U.s. In Rock-bottom Regard.

Bullying

Ignorance

Rocks

Financial Institutions Like To Call What They Do Trading. Let's Be Honest. It's Not Trading; It's Betting.

Honest

Financial

Institutions

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.

Book

Thinking

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Everything I Love About America Is Fragile.

America

Fragile

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.

Mother

School

Light

I Think The Absence Of Socks On Men Wearing Suits And Brogues Is A Problem. They'll Live To Regret That.

Regret

Men

Thinking

Fashion Is A Dangerous Road To Go Down. Anybody Who Is Going To Have Children Later In Life Had Best Not Be Too Fashionable Because The Photos Will Come Back To Haunt Them.

Fashion

Children

Later In Life

There Aren't Any Looks Or Customs I Wish Would Come Back. Today Almost Anything Goes. Culture Constantly Devours The Past So There's Not Much That's Missing.

Past

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In Less Than A Year, The Bush Administration Will Strut Out Of Office, Leaving The Country In Roughly The Same Condition A Toddler Leaves A Diaper.

Country

Years

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In An Age When All That Was Old Seems New Again, Bernard Devoto's The Hour Couldn't Have Made A More Timely Reappearance. This Book Reminds Me Of One Of The Joys Of Being An Adult-cocktail Hour!

Book

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We Really Care About Photography At Vanity Fair.

Photography

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Most Of Us Have Learned The Hard Way That There Are Very Few Things You Can Absolutely Count On In Life.

Way

Hard Way

Hard

Arrogance, Ignorance, And Incompetence. Not A Pretty Cocktail Of Personality Traits In The Best Of Situations. No Sirree. Not A Pretty Cocktail In An Office-mate And Not A Pretty Cocktail In A Head Of State. In Fact, In A Leader, It's A Lethal Cocktail.

Ignorance

Office

Personality

We Admire Elephants In Part Because They Demonstrate What We Consider The Finest Human Traits: Empathy, Self-awareness, And Social Intelligence. But The Way We Treat Them Puts On Display The Very Worst Of Human Behavior.

Elephants

Self

Empathy

Television Has The Obvious Benefits Of Regularity And Intimacy.

Where Past Generations Had Film Cameras, Scrapbooks, Notebooks, And That Part Of The Brain Which Stores Memories, We Now Have A Smartphone App For Every Conceivable Recording Need. The Thing Is, All That Time You Spend Logging And Then Curating The Quotidian Aspects Of Your Daily Life Is Time Taken Away From Actually Doing Things.

Notebook

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Taken

Whatever Age We Are Is The Age We’ve Always Been.

Age

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.

Years

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Age

People Think They Have To Be Ambitious. But At A Certain Age, All You Want Is To Be Around Nice, Decent People.

Nice

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The Fact Is, Unlike A Lot Of Writers, I Credit The People Who Help Me. A Lot Of Writers Out There Have A Ton Of Researchers And They Don't Get Credited In The Book.

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Many Of The Architects Of The Vietnam War Became Near Pariahs As They Spent The Remainder Of Their Lives In The Futile Quest To Explain Away Their Decisions At The Time.

War

Decision

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The Shelf Life Of A Movie Actor Or Actress Is So Short, It's Like Milk.

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It Could Safely Be Said That Iraqis Are Dying At A Faster Clip Since The American-led Invasion And Occupation Than They Did During The Last Decade Of Saddam Hussein's Rule.

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Occupation

As A Father Of Five, I Sometimes Feel I've Spent A Lifetime Watching Disney Musicals.

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Lifetime

I Walk Down The Street And People Don't Go, 'my God, There He Is.' I Lead As Normal A Life As You Can Lead In New York City.

New York

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The Greatest Thing That Prepared Me For Editing Vanity Fair Was Having Four Kids Because You Just Learn To Subjugate Your Ego With The Greater Interest In Mind.

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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.

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My Hunch Is That Pop Culture Began To Stagnate The Moment Americans Started To Love The Past More Than They Did The Future.

Past

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To A Young Kid Growing Up In Canada, America Seemed To Be Crazy About The Future; Dazzled By It.

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I Don't Do Any Research. It's All About Gut. Editing - It's Always About Gut.

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Many Men Think They're Playboys But They Invariably Land Wide Of The Mark. Surrounding Yourself With Champagne, Fast Friends And Paid Escorts Is The Very Definition Of The Word 'loser'.

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I Have Always Thought You Could Take The Measure Of A Man By His Sports Manners - That Is To Say, The Way In Which He Conducts Himself On The Playing Field, Or Even Over A Game Of Chess Or Cards.

Sports

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Life Is All About Seating And Lighting.

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Lighting

Water-boarding Can Result In Damage To The Lungs And The Brain, As Well As Long-term Psychological Trauma.

Long

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Brain

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.

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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.

New York

Fun

Cities

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.

Prayer

Ideas

Swings

Memory Is Often - Perhaps Usually - A Distorting Lens: What We Think We Remember Isn't The Way It Was At All. It's What We'd Like To Remember.

Memories

Thinking

Lenses

The Danger Of Leaving Overwhelming Wealth And Power In The Grasp Of A Small Minority Is A Lesson That Leaders Such As Ousted Tunisian President Zine El-abidine Ben Ali And Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Have Learned A Little Too Late, As The Demonstrations Across The Arab World Indicate.

Zines

Leader

Leaving

Moping Is An Unattractive Attribute In A Man.

Men

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Attributes

After The Collapse Of Wall Street In The 1920s, The Culture Stopped Being All About Money, And The Country Survived And Ultimately Flourished.

Country

Wall

Culture

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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