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Sam Donaldson
ABC News Correspondent
To find out things, you do not sit in the back of the press room waiting to be called on. If you do, you'll sit there with cobwebs around you. You'll never get called on. You have to go forward. You don't have to do it in my style. Ted Koppel's style is completely different, but Ted is an aggressive person. He probes, he goes in. He doesn't let his guests get away with silly answers. And you have to be willing to do that. Not only fail, but make a fool of yourself. Now, you say, that's silly. Why would you go out and consciously try to make a fool of yourself? Well, you don't consciously try to do it, but if you ask a question in public, let's say, on television, every question can't be brilliant. Every question can't make you out to be one of the most articulate spokespersons in the western world. Some of the questions are going to be dumb. Because later you say, "Why did I ask that?" Or they may be technical, in the sense that, yeah, you're trying to get a little piece of information, but to an audience they don't seem to be profound at all. If you're not willing to say, "But that's my job and I don't care if I fall on my face once in a while, stub my toe, make a fool of myself in trying to do that job," then -- then you aggressively move forward.
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Sam Donaldson
ABC News Correspondent
I do believe you have to be self-assured. That doesn't mean cock-sure, in the sense that I think I'm always right. I don't. I know, frequently, when it comes to opinion matters, I'm often wrong. And once in a while I'm wrong in factual matters, although I try hard not to be. But I think you have to feel that you have some self-assurance. Why would you do something if you didn't believe in it? Why would you say something if you didn't think it was right? If you're arguing a public issue, why would you argue your side if you didn't believe in your side? And I think that too can come across as arrogance. "Who does he think he is? He thinks he's the smartest guy in the world." But the bottom line is, I don't feel that I'm better than my colleagues, or my audience. And I don't think of myself as arrogant, but I'm aware that other people do. And I regret that, but I'm me and I'm just going to have to go on being me.
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Sam Donaldson
ABC News Correspondent
I was sad, because like most people I didn't know a lot about cancer. The word melanoma, to me, meant instant death. I understood it was one of the most vicious types of cancer, because it's not susceptible to radiation or chemotherapy, thank you. So, when I learned it was a melanoma I sat my wife down and I said, "We have to prepare, it may be a short period of time: a few weeks, or a few months." And I was sad, because I love her and I'm enjoying life. But I wasn't frightened in the sense of, "Oh, I'm going to die." Maybe if I was 30 years old, I would have been. But I'm 62, as we speak, and while I'd like to be 72, and -- if I remained in good health and had the mind -- 82, it's not like a young person. I've lived a lot of life and I've done a lot of things, seen a lot of things, and I understand the actuarial tables. We are not going to live forever.
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Mohamed ElBaradei
Nobel Prize for Peace
My father was president of the Egyptian Bar Association. He was involved very much during the Nasser era -- which was one of the most repressive eras in Egyptian history -- in fighting for democracy, fighting for human rights, and I think that to a lot of extent shaped my view as to what I wanted to do in the future. I wanted to have a world where people are free to express their views, to have freedom of worship, to have freedom from want, and I saw poverty in Egypt when I grew up. To me, freedom, in the larger sense -- to be able to speak, to worship, free from want, free from fear -- I think it was a key as to what I thought I would like to do when I grow up.
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