If you have a child, I said, you have a responsibility at least to stay alive.
Interpretation
Having a child brings a responsibility to ensure their well-being, requiring parents to take care of themselves.
This quote emphasizes the moral obligation that comes with parenthood. It suggests that being a parent is not only about nurturing and guiding a child but also about ensuring one's own well-being to fulfill that role effectively. The responsibility of raising a child inherently means prioritizing one's life and health to provide stability and support in their upbringing.
In practice
During a parenting seminar, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of self-care for parents.
Some people accused me of being pro-Muslim in Bosnia, but I realised that our job is to give all sides an equal hearing, but in cases of genocide you can't just be neutral. You can't just say, 'Well, this little boy was shot in the head and killed in besieged Sarajevo and that guy over there did it, but maybe he was upset because he had an argument with his wife.' No, there is no equality there, and we had to tell the truth.
I leave CNN with the utmost respect, love and admiration for the company and everyone who works here. This has been my family and shared endeavor for the past 27 years, and I am forever grateful and proud of all that we have accomplished.
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.
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.
In Iran the whole reform and democracy movement has been based on the emerging free press.
We were thrilled and we were privileged to be part of a revolution, because make no mistake about it, Ted Turner changed the world with CNN.
You hear a lot of dialogue on the death of the American family. Families aren't dying. They're merging into big conglomerates.
Growing up, I thought my grandfather was dead. Later, I learned he was alive, but my family pretended he didn't exist because of the terrible way he'd abused my grandmother and my mother. He did things like shave my grandmother's head and lock her in a closet. With my mother's help, my grandmother finally left him.
My most treasured possessions are not things; they are only things, my friends, family and animals are what counts.
You didn't have a choice about the parents you inherited, but you do have a choice about the kind of parent you will be.
Where I grew up, I feel lucky to have been from there. The culture in general is rooted with a strong sense of family; of kin; of place, geographically; of tradition. There's a resilience, a strong will to make it. I mean, heck, it was settled by a bunch of outcasts that didn't fit in.
That afternoon my mother had brought me the roses. "Save them for my funeral," I'd said.
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