“It was clear how you grabbed audiences and held on to them: by telling them those stories they would fall in love with.” – pg. 14
“Do not ever be afraid to ask a question when you don’t understand something. Never be hesitant about it. Never be embarrassed about it. And if the first person you ask doesn’t want to give you the answer, then find someone else who will help. Because it’s always on you to figure it out and get it right.” – pg. 28
“[Saturday Night Live] was the opposite of predictable, and the epitome of original.” – pg. 82
“If my career had taught me anything, it was that the only way to achieve something fantastic was to take big chances.” – pg. 96
“Television can be an emotional business with emotional people. You’re best off understanding and even appreciating that notion if you want to make something great.” – pg. 103
“I had to take chances; I had to believe that my ideas could work.” – pg. 122
“Television, entertainment, movies – all of show business – isn’t about shows and programs; it’s about relationships.” Sam Weisbord to Dick Ebersol, pg. 123
“If you find a job you love, don’t try to satiate your ego by finding something else. Just realize how lucky you are, and have a great time working your ass off from there.” – pg. 188
“The creative people are the people who feed any show business enterprise; who put asses in seats, or eyeballs in front of television sets.” – pg. 199
“You couldn’t bullshit them, but you could inspire them to want to be part of our success.” – pg. 204
“Not every risk is going to pay off. But that doesn’t mean you don’t take them.” – Jack Immelt, pg. 230
“Through all my jobs, in and out of sports, there was something appealing about not just going all over the globe, but doing it through unusual, sometimes crazy means.” – pg. 247
“On the road, in any city, and in any country, one of my favorite things to do was simple: walk around.” – pg. 247
“For all the unpredictability and adventure that defined my work life, what’s ironic is that anyone who knows me well would also tell you how much I love familiarity and routine in the rest of my life. […] I like what I know, and I find comfort in what I can count on.” – pg. 248
“It was okay to cry, it was okay to be sad – okay, even, to be sad for the rest of our lives. But we couldn’t be mad. Anger would cloud our ability to mourn and find some improbably path to healing.” – Dick Ebersol on Susan’s mantra, pg. 262
“It would be a terrible mistake if you, Dick, were ever to entertain any thought such as ‘I should have been home more,’ or ‘I worked too much and that was bad.’ Because your passion and creativity and vision and successes and devotion to the details of your work and all the joy you got from that was a pulse of our house. The heartbeat – we all thrived on it and learned from it and it rubbed off on us.” – Susan Ebersol, pg. 265
“His sister turned and asked , point-blank, why he cared so much about the game. ‘I wanted to be able to speak [Dad’s] language. He loves baseball. So I wanted to love baseball.'” – Dick Ebersol on Teddy, pg. 270
“He was the embodiment of everything great about the NFL – the passion it stokes in people, the significance it’s had on American culture, the joy it’s brought.” – Dick Ebersol on Brett Favre, pg. 299
“My only real goal in all of this is to leave the sport bigger and better than I was lucky enough to find it.” – Michael Phelps, pg. 312
“It had been a long, long time since the Olympics had first captured my imagination that way. And it was amazing to think how, for all the ways the world had changed, that was still exactly the same.” – pg. 323
“Everything he wrote still holds up today. Build up characters. Bring the atmosphere to life. Make people feel like they’re in the stadiums themselves. Tell a great story.” – on Roone Arledge’s 1962 memo, pg. 347
“There’s still something magical about events, and entertainers, that can bring millions, if not billions, together. They show us how much we share, rather than how different we are. How much we have in common, rather than how much we disagree.” – pg. 348
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