Anderson Cooper Quotations

That's the thing about suicide. Try as you might to remember how a person lived his life, you always end up thinking about how he ended it.

If I end up hosting 'Joker's Wild,' please shoot me.

I think the notion of traditional anchor is fading away - the all-knowing, all-seeing person who speaks from on high. I don't think the audience really buys that anymore. As a viewer, I know I don't buy it.

Anyone who says they're not afraid at the time of a hurricane is either a fool or a liar, or a little bit of both.

Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss.

I don't have much experience, but the few times when I would go on a date with a girl - like when I was 12 - there was a lot of sharing, and a lot of talking, and a lot of asking how I am. They thought we were dating, and I was sort of hoping to meet their brothers.

Obviously I was well aware that I had what people consider a privileged upbringing. My mom was never a bake-cookies sort of mom. I really had no reins whatsoever.

The whole celebrity culture thing - I'm fascinated by, and repelled by, and yet I end up knowing about it.

If you learn the language of loss early, I think you seek out others who have experienced the same thing, who speak that same language of loss.

When I was younger, I talked to the adults around me that I respected most about how they got where they were, and none of them plotted a course they could have predicted, so it seemed a waste of time to plan too long-term. Since then, I've always gone on my instincts.

If I'm hip, we've got a problem in this country. I really shouldn't be held up as any model of hipness. If anything, I think I'm sort of old school in my approach to objective reporting and not wearing my opinion on my sleeve. There's a lot of that in American TV news these days. Too much, in fact.

A lot of compelling stories in the world aren't being told, and the fact that people don't know about them compounds the suffering.

I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening.

I've been addicted to TV since I emerged from the womb.

I am sort of drawn toward places in the world where there is struggle and conflict.

Not to sound too Dr. Phil all of a sudden, but I think the key to survival is to embrace one's past and to not run away from it. And to come to some sort of relationship with it or understanding of it.

I'd like to have kids at some point. I think I'll have a family someday.

I think it's a good thing that there are bloggers out there watching very closely and holding people accountable. Everyone in the news should be able to hold up to that kind of scrutiny. I'm for as much transparency in the newsgathering process as possible.

If you feel like an outsider, you tend to observe things a lot more.

I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it.

The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I can begin to understand how anchor monsters are made. If you're not careful, you can become used to being treated as though you're special and begin to expect it.

I suppose if you've never bitten your nails, there isn't any way to explain the habit. It's not enjoyable, really, but there is a certain satisfaction - pride in a job well done.

The world reacts very strangely to people they see on TV, and I can begin to understand how anchor monsters are made. If you're not careful, you can become used to being treated as though you're special and begin to expect it. For a reporter, that's the kiss of death.

I've always giggled like a 13-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber meet and greet. There's nothing I can do about it but I've never not been able to stop.

Our skin is very thin. It doesn't take much for us to jump off a ledge or to kill one another. It can happen very, very quickly.

I tend to relate more to people on television who are just themselves, for good or for bad, than I do to someone who I believe is putting on some sort of persona. The anchorman on 'The Simpsons' is a reasonable facsimile of some anchors who have that problem.

When a big event happens, people turn on to CNN, not only because they know there will be people there covering an event on the ground, but because they know we're going to cover it in a way that's non-partisan, that's not left or right.

I have a friend - I send her one text and I get 20 texts back. Guys don't want a million texts. It's exhausting.

If someone knows me and likes me or my work, they're more likely to allow me to tell their story. But it also cuts the other way.

I understand why people might be interested. But I just don't talk about my personal life. It's a decision I made a long time ago, before I ever even knew anyone would be interested in my personal life.

We heard church bells ringing. We heard people yelling, screaming, clapping. A friend of one of the miners came over, crying, to tell us that he had heard and just been told in the church that 12 of them (miners) had been found alive.

She's still out there. There are rats roaming around, and I wonder if no one knows who this woman is and where her family is.

I wouldn't call it looting. What I have seen is desperate people kind of wandering around here in downtown Gulfport. There are a lot of police here in Gulfport, so you can't get away with looting. But I have seen people picking stuff up from the wreckage. I saw a man with two bottles of olive oil. He was hoping to try to cook something up. He says he has no water. He doesn't really have much of a place to go. So there are a lot of people just desperately in need.

I don't feel like I'm doing anything different.

I am listening to people's questions and getting answers. I am least of all interested in any TV anchor's opinion, and least of all my own.

I can't imagine going back. I'm going to have to at some point, but I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know.

There is elation at this moment. The news just coming a short time ago that the 12 miners are alive.

Hundreds of reporters, in all media, did heroic work on the Gulf Coast in the deadly storm's aftermath. None arguably was as financially and symbolically important to his company as the job turned in by Williams. It could solidify his spot as network news' top anchor.

Those of us who were here and have had the privilege to cover it, and to witness these triumphs and these tragedies, will never forget it and will carry it with us. That's part of the fear of leaving, that people will forget and coverage will go elsewhere. And there are so many answers we need to get.

To me, those are the heroes of the story. It was government that failed. It was people who stood up.

I don't feel I'm very present in each moment. I feel like every moment I'm either thinking about something that's coming down the road or something that's been in the past.

Congo is one of the least-developed countries in the world, and has millions of acres of virtually untouched forest.

I'm always uncomfortable with that notion of setting people up in order to kind of promote, you know, some sort of a face-off.

Socialism isn't just a list of economic prescriptions for government. Perhaps above all, socialism is a moral view.

I believe in a society where all people do well. Not just a handful of billionaires.

I've never had a 12-year-old try to explain to me about groove.

If you've ever swum in the ocean, and you go underneath the waves, you know, you're kind of moved by the currents, but you're not being slapped around at the top of the water by the waves. And that's sort of what meditation is like.

I meditate. Like, I try. Not every day, but even if I'm not doing that meditation, the moments of my day have changed because I'm not on my phone so much. I'm intentionally not checking my phone every two seconds.

One of the things that Jon Kabat-Zinnn talks about is that everyone wants to figure out how to live longer. But this actually is a very easy way for you to live longer, maybe you're not extending your life, but you are present and living more of the moments of your life.

Anytime you stop and talk to somebody and you learn about them, you start to walk in their shoes a little bit and you see things through a different lens.

I just found it interesting to talk to adults I admired, and to discover that the path they took was never all that clearly defined. It was comforting to me when I figured out that you don't have to know what you want to do with your life; you just have to take a few steps in one direction, and other opportunities will open up.

I think being gay is a blessing, and it's something I am thankful for every single day.

The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.

The thing I love about reporting is being able to blend in with any group, whether that's neo-Nazis or pedophiles.

It's not your client's obligation, or your obligation, to prove your client's innocence. It is the prosecution's obligation to - to prove you're client's guilt.

In a perfect world, I don't think it [one's sexual orientation] is anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.

Politics was his passion, but he wasn't suited for the rough-and-tumble of the game. He felt things too deeply. There was no wall between his head and his heart.

I’d wanted emotion but couldn’t find it here, so I settled for motion.

I graduated in 1989, and I'd focused almost entirely on the Soviet Union and communism ... so when the Berlin wall fell, I was, well, I was screwed.

Selling your apartment in New York is like dating a manic-depressive.. you get used to cycles of elation and despondency. Every time someone would come to see the apartment, there was the thrill of the date. You want to be presentable, so you clean the place up, make sure it smells good, put on some mood lighting and mellow music.

I have gas mask in my office because I took Chem/bio warfare training class so I can report in case of an attack. It’s on a copy of my head made by Madame Tussauds

Do you get the anger that is out here?

I've always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly,

I went to a high school reunion a couple years ago and realized that the kids who were the most unusual in high school are the ones who are the most interesting now and the ones who were popular are dull and boring.

New Yorkers are predatory about real estate. When they sense softening, they move in for the kill.

I think if you've suffered, if you've experienced loss, you're probably more open to understanding it and more comfortable talking about it and experiencing it.

The people in Tacloban have great dignity and deserve better than what they have gotten

Each child’s story is worthy of telling. There shouldn’t be a sliding scale of death. The weight of it is crushing.

Graduation is a big deal-bigger than getting a hole-in-one while golfing. People might think you're lying about the hole-in-one, but when you graduate, you get a diploma.

So, he [Donald Trump] still says deport - they all got to go.

I'm not trying to be something that I'm not. I'm just trying to be myself and talk about what I know, and admit what I don't know.

Anderson [Cooper], I guess the question I have is why can't CNN cover Obamacare, and ISIS, and radical Islamic terrorism?

I think there are a lot of celebrities who put on a performance on camera.

Thoughts come and go. It's impossible to stop your thoughts, but the idea is that the thoughts are kind of like waves on the ocean. That's Jon Kabat-Zinn's big analogy and that this is actually kind of diving under the waves. And you know it's kind of interesting.

Anderson [Cooper]!Hillary Clinton is running as the first female president who has a sitting president and first lady much more popular than she will ever be.

As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter.

Going gray is like ejaculating: you know it can happen prematurely, but when it does it comes as a total shock.

We'd be happy to have more fair treatment in the media, but I'm not going to find unicorns on my doorstep tomorrow.

The farther you go...the harder it is to return. The world has many edges and it's easy to fall off.

The map of the world is always changing; sometimes it happens overnight. All it takes is the blink of an eye, the squeeze of a trigger, a sudden gust of wind. Wake up and your life is perched on a precipice; fall asleep, it swallows you whole.

Just to be clear, if, like Pat Robertson, you somehow missed all the evidence, all the research, the depth and breadth of all the knowledge garnered about HIV and AIDS over the past three decades, you cannot get HIV if you share towels,

Did you know that according to legend, the guy who became Buddha decided to seek enlightenment the day he got a touch of gray? "Gray hairs," the would-be Buddha said, "are like angels sent by the god of death".

Don't fall in love with a bonobo, because it's gonna die.

Let's just be clear: The reason this has been making headlines is because Donald Trump was discussing and bragging about sexual assault 11 years ago on a bus.It's not Hillary Clinton who put those words in his mouth.

The people I admire most hadn't really followed a particular path that was visible when they were on it.

I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don't think it's anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don't give that up by being a journalist.

[Bill Clinton] has settled numerous lawsuits without admitting any guilt on a whole number of things. Are you saying, are you implying that settling a lawsuit is implying guilt? Because if so, it means that your candidate is guilty of an awful lot of things, no.

I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn't be more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.

Everyone says buying your first apartment makes you feel like an adult. What no one mentions is that selling it turns you right back into a child.

You guys should know we do [ cover Obamacare, and ISIS, and radical Islamic terrorism] because you watch CNN all day long.

Be honest about what you see, get out of the way and let the story reveal itself

You see people walking down the street with ear buds on and looking at this or whatever, talking to themselves. So there's more and more opportunity to never be where we actually are and just be.

My goodness, why is this woman [ Hillary Clinton ] at 46%? She's like the magic 46. She's 46% in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, she's 46% in a lot of these swing states.

I don't like anything that scares me, and I prefer to face it head on and get over it. Anyone who says they're not scared is a fool, a liar or both. I just don't want that fear in my stomach to be part of my life, so I work to eliminate it.

Learning what you don't want to do is the next best thing to figuring out what you want to do.

Anderson [Cooper]first of all, in case anybody's wondering because they'll somehow read my mind after this broadcast ... I find those comments to be disgusting and reprehensible, and I'm really glad that he apologized.

You can't stop suffering, you can't stop terrible things from happening, but you can bear witness... The least us reporters can do is go there and tell their stories.

In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God's greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life.