Allan Sloan Column Quotations

If a column is crying out for a good line and I can't come up with it, I troll for help. Communal humor is good, especially if you involve your boss.

It's easy to write a good column if you've got good information. It's hard if you have to depend on style alone. I suppose there are people who can get away with styling on a regular basis. I'm not one of them. You're probably not, either.

I wanted to be a columnist so badly that I took a huge pay cut to leave Forbes, which wouldn't give me a column, and join Newsday, which wanted my column for its Sunday business section.

Report, report, report. Dig, dig, dig. Think, think, think. Don't stop being a reporter because you've become a columnist.

Go for the gold: better one great column and some undistinguished ones than constant mediocrity.

Teamwork is better than isolation, especially for a columnist.

Don't commit to being a columnist unless you're willing to do it right. Report your behind off, so you have something original and useful to say. Say it in a way that will interest someone other than you, your family and your sources.