Leslie Cockburn Quotes & Sayings

When you do a piece of journalism, you may have to cut away 95 percent of what you are experiencing. — Leslie Cockburn

It's a very enclosed world on Wall Street. — Leslie Cockburn

Mohammed ignored the abuse. What did Ahmed know? It had been years since anyone had studied music in Paris or Seville on a scholarship paid for by the country's oil profits. The only knowledge people mastered these days was how to steal copper wire and load a gun. Mohammed felt like a relic from a lost civilization, buried in the muck of the Tigris. Sassanid, Seleucid, Sumerian. Achaemenid, Assyrian, Akkadian. He sometimes thought he was the only one who remembered. For what it was worth, he could sing the ancient songs of the pearl divers. — Leslie Cockburn

Journalism, for me, has always been a calling. There are things that must be exposed to the light, truths that must be uncovered, stories worth risking your life for. — Leslie Cockburn

But there are times, I would argue, when fiction delivers the greater truth. — Leslie Cockburn

She had done her residency at LA County Hospital, where the CT machines were so old she had to mark off the body parts for scanning with paper clips. She thought Baghdad hospitals might be like that. — Leslie Cockburn

When you have a situation that's destructive, when there's tremendous inhumanity everywhere, you see how humanity survives in all of its different permutations. — Leslie Cockburn

After reading Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad when I was a student at Yale, I wanted to live in the world they captured in their books. I had had some experience living in Africa. I was drawn to that kind of adventure. — Leslie Cockburn

The lapis lazuli worry beads, draped over his rear view mirror, swung back and forth like the hips of Scheherazade, Mohammed's favorite belly dancer, who refused, in spite of the war, to leave Baghdad. — Leslie Cockburn

Why did you become a journalist?"
"Better than working for a living. — Leslie Cockburn

When I was at graduate school in London, I began working at NBC News, which had a thriving documentary unit. — Leslie Cockburn

Death was sweetened for the martyrs by the promise of 72 virgins waiting in paradise. She had researched the 72 virgins. The number wasn't actually in the Quran but in the Hadith 2687, collected in the Book of Sunan. The Quran, in Sura 56, was vague on the point. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls ... A new analysis translated houris from the Aramaic dialect Syriac as "white raisins", which put everything in a very different light. — Leslie Cockburn

I have a great spouse, Andrew Cockburn, who's also a journalist. — Leslie Cockburn

You can take me to Petra, and sing for me in the ruins."
"Insha'Allah. — Leslie Cockburn

When I was in London at NBC, I was the lowest man on the totem pole. I would go to diplomatic receptions to meet people. — Leslie Cockburn

When you are on assignment, you stick to the facts, limit your vision, and often cut out the most revealing material. There is no texture, no shades of gray. In fiction, you can bring the reader on the perilous journey with your characters as they discover that war is more like a wilderness of mirrors, full of danger and uncertainty. — Leslie Cockburn

Yes, I know, I'm only an artist. What would I know about the dark side of Baghdad? — Leslie Cockburn

I think the greatest thing about making a documentary is your ability to just follow the story and the subject. — Leslie Cockburn

Are you a journalist?"
"I'm a doctor."
"Good. We need doctors, Wallahi." Sadoon scowled. "Journalists only tell lies and smuggle carpets. — Leslie Cockburn

I started making little films with a 16 mm camera as an undergraduate at Yale. My first job out of college was 'assistant editor' on a forgettable low budget feature. — Leslie Cockburn

In documentary films, the most difficult thing to achieve is to make something complex appear simple. — Leslie Cockburn

I covered the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia and Israel for ABC News. — Leslie Cockburn

There are a lot of people missing in Iraq. Just the other day I heard of somebody asking $250,000 ransom for an Egyptian. Can you imagine? An Egyptian. That's inflation. This war," he said, leaning closer to her, "is all about money. — Leslie Cockburn

Lee was conscious that Nizar watched her trying to adjust her abaya. She knew everyone could tell a Western woman by her awkwardness and her shoes. — Leslie Cockburn