Jane Pauley Quotes

I’m excited about going back to ‘Today,’ but, at odd moments, I’ll grit my teeth in anxiety. I feel like a student before the start of school. I’ve got my new shoes and my book bag, but I’m not sure I’ll remember how to do trigonometry. During my maternity leave, I haven‘t used many words of more than one syllable.

I think women think a lot about cycles, biological and personal. This year another cycle came around: my contract was up. It seemed an opportunity to take a life audit.

AARP knows the future is bright for a generation that’s going to remain healthy and vital for 10, 20, 30, 40 more years. AARP has the information and resources people need throughout their process of reinvention.

‘Good Morning America’ exploited Joan Lunden’s pregnancy, but you won‘t see me bringing my babies on the air. The only reason I’m talking about the babies at all is that they’ve been with me on the show since I became pregnant. After a while, I had to acknowledge this pumpkin tummy.

I think the success of a talk show depends on how true it is to the personality of the person hosting it. The shows I really admire, like ‘Oprah‘ and ‘Ellen,’ are distinctively like their hosts, so I think my show will be successful only if we try to stay consistent to my own sense of myself.

My guess is that people look at me and project their own values – importance of family, ego is healthy but not the biggest thing. I don’t know. I can’t explain my popularity.

I envy people with dreams and passions, but I don’t think that way. I still don’t have a ‘bliss‘ to follow. For people like me – I suspect that’s most people – holding out for a ‘dream’ or a ‘passion’ is paralyzing. I just like having work I enjoy that feels meaningful. That’s hard enough… but it’s enough.

No baby boomer has a completely original idea, but after 13 years on ‘Today’ and another 11 on ‘Dateline,’ almost 30 years total at NBC, I felt the urge to find out what was ‘behind the camera.’ I had the feeling there was ‘something more,’ though ‘more’ might be less.

This may sound funny, but as much as the ‘Today’ show matured me, it also was something of a cocoon. I’d been happy there. I never went into the boss‘s office and pounded my fist on the desk, saying, ‘Give me more money! Give me a prime-time show!’

I would not take for granted that my personal life – because I knew better than anybody – that it was just a life. It was surprisingly an ordinary life.

I have been fiercely private, in part because I could never understand how a journalist could be otherwise. I was also the mother of small children, and security concerns were paramount.

A mood disorder is dangerous. You’ve got to get those dramatic waves of highs and lows stabilized. It’s dangerous if you don’t.

I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine being an American icon! It would be pretty difficult to look at your face in the mirror and think of yourself as that without laughing and spitting toothpaste all over!

Because our generation has waited so long to have babies, we feel we’ve ‘discovered‘ something that women have been doing for thousands of years. I have no illusions that I will be in the same situation as the average working mother. I’m not trying to prove anything – I just want to have kids.

Twins are a high-risk pregnancy, by definition. The quieter I am, the longer I can keep them growing.

I’m not driven by killer ambition. I’m not a workaholic. I’m a good team player. I don’t have to be captain, but I do want to play on a winning team.

Nobody calls me silly. That is not a word that applies to me.

Kids learn more from example than from anything you say; I’m convinced they learn very early not to hear anything you say, but to watch what you do.

I have a very good sense of tone, and it’s possible to talk about very personal things and maintain a level of dignity and even privacy – to go to the place, to talk about it, but not get icky.

I probably am more shy than people realize. But I’m shy when I leave a studio and I am just myself.

I came back to work when my children were two months old. At that early age, they seem to have little awareness of anybody but their Raggedy Ann dolls, so it wasn’t a matter of them missing me. I was missing them.

I see myself as life-sized, certainly not a supersized personality, and apparently after 30 years of television, that’s what the audience thinks of me as well. I know this because for the first time in my career, I’ve just seen market research, and the thing I am known for is being authentic.

A diagnosis is burden enough without being burdened by secrecy and shame.

I think my children know that Mother’s priority is to be with them first. But I don’t think it has to be an either/or situation. Work is very important to me, and it wouldn’t be in the best interest of my children for me to stay home seven days a week.

New Yorkers, by reputation, are fast-talking, assertive and easily annoyed; I fit right in.

I had had some months of depression. Not serious enough to keep me from work. So, I guess you’d call that a mild depression. It was becoming worse. And I was being treated for it with anti-depressants.

I’ve always been profoundly ambivalent about fame. I think it just eats the reality out of you and it can be intoxicating because I like some of it.

I am not one of the great journalists of my time.

I hate my picture being taken. A photograph by definition captures one mood. And I have a million facets to my personality; I never use just one. That’s why I like TV more.

I would like to prove that on TV, everyday lives can be as compelling as the life-styles of the rich and famous. Especially lives that we catch at extraordinary moments.