Quotes from Christiane Amanpour

What we do and say and show really matters.

In emerging democracies like Russia, in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia, journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact, they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.

Indeed in the full flush of journalistic passion and conviction I once told an interviewer that of course I would never get married. And I most definitely would never have children.

I was planning, I told everybody, to take him on the road with me. At the very least I fully expected to keep up my hectic pace, and my passion as a war correspondent.

And I really believe good journalism is good business.

We do it because we're committed, because we're believers.

And one thing that I always believed and that I knew for certain was that I could never have sustained a personal relationship while I worked this hard, or while I was that driven this intensely by the story.

We in the press, by our power, can actually undermine leadership.

If we have no respect for our viewers, then how can we have any respect for ourselves and what we do?

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 strongly believe that journalism is one of the most noble professions, because without an informed world, and without an informed society, we are weak, we are weak.

U.S. soldiers, with whom I now have more than a passing acquaintance, joke that they track my movements in order to know where they will be deployed next.

We hear foreign accents on CNN. It's crazy, it's wild, who knows, maybe they'll take you because you certainly don't fit in, in the American spectrum of news.

But to be self-obsessed is simply not o.k. for the most important country in the world, the United States, which affects every other country in the world.

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.

In Bosnia, little children shot in the head by a guy who thinks it's okay to aim his gun at a child.

What you do, what you say, how you react to critical situations defines not just the moment, but it defines and shapes you.

And I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place.

Our industry has invested so much money in technology that perhaps it's time to invest in talent, in people.

Here in the United States, our profession is much maligned, people simply don't trust or like journalists anymore and that's sad.

My view is that when lies become mixed up with the truth, it's a very dangerous world.

I do believe that is a template that I stick very strongly to to tell the truth in an increasing swelter of lies and misinformation and disinformation.

But 17 years ago, I arrived at CNN with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and with about 100 dollars.

Yes, you are running businesses, and yes, we understand and accept that, but surely there must be a level beyond which profit from news is simply indecent.