- James Gannon: How could you give up a real newspaper job for teaching?
- Erica Stone: Well, that's a very good question, Mr. Gallagher. Maybe for the same reason that occasionally a musician wants to be a conductor, he wants to hear a hundred people play music the way he hears it.
- Erica Stone: Newspapers can't compete in reporting what happened any more, but they can and should tell the public why it happened.
- James Gannon: [providing an impromptu lesson to Barney] By the way, you heard about it, didn't you?
- Barney Kovac: What?
- James Gannon: Found him dead.
- Barney Kovac: Who?
- James Gannon: Boss.
- Barney Kovac: No kidding. When?
- James Gannon: Two minutes ago.
- Barney Kovac: Where did they find him?
- James Gannon: In his office.
- Barney Kovac: What did happen?
- James Gannon: Some dame shot him.
- Barney Kovac: Some dame sho... Why?
- James Gannon: Barney, you have just asked me six very important questions: who, what, where, when, how, and why. That's what every news story should answer.
- James Gannon: [referring to Dr. Pine, Erica Stone's boyfriend] So he's got more degrees than a thermometer, so he speaks seven languages, so he's read every book. So what? The important thing is he's had no experience. He didn't start at the bottom and work up. That's the only way you can learn.
- Peggy DeFore: You're so right, Jim-zee. Take me. Where would I be if I just read books? Well, I gotta go get undressed. Comin' over after?
- Erica Stone: As my father used to say, a reporter has to do a lot of sweating before he earns the right to perspire.
- Peggy DeFore: Who's the character with her? He's dreamy. Must be from Hollywood.
- James Gannon: [disgusted] He's a psychologist.
- Peggy DeFore: No kidding! Well, what do you know? It just shows you, you can't tell by looks. Jim-zee, what's a psychologist?
- James Gannon: A guy who gives all kinds of advice about things he knows nothing about.
- James Gannon: Morning. Hangover?
- Dr. Hugo Pine: Calling what I have a 'hangover' is like referring to the Johnstown flood as a slight drizzle.
- Dr. Hugo Pine: To me, journalism is, ah, like a hangover. You can read about it for years, but until you've actually experienced it, you have no conception of what it's really like.
- James Gannon: And those night schools. There's a nice little racket. Some dame standing there never been closer to a paper than putting in a want ad - telling them how to be journalists. Stealing their money. Amateurs teaching amateurs how to be amateurs.
- Dr. Hugo Pine: You're confusing education with schooling. Education is the acquisition of knowledge. If you care to look it up, you'll find that the definition of knowledge is "knowing, familiarity gained by experience." You'll also find that wisdom is defined as "the possession of experience and knowledge." Now, being experienced, you therefore have education, you have knowledge, and you have wisdom. You're brilliant... and you make a good martini.
- Gartner: [after being paged to Gannon's desk] Yup?
- James Gannon: Almost forgot: press conference. Got some visiting firemen from Russia. Grab a cameraman, I told them we'd be right over.
- [hands Gartner slip of paper]
- Gartner: Okay.
- [turns to walk away, notices paper is not the intended address, but a flattering sketch of Erica Stone]
- James Gannon: What's the matter?
- Gartner: [chuckling, hands back sketch] Well, that's one way to end the Cold War.
- [Gannon sees his error, snatches sketch back in embarrassment]
- Erica Stone: Look at this. Blood and sex. Journalism is so much more than blood and sex.
- James Gannon: You liked my story about the murder. That's blood, isn't it?
- Erica Stone: Wait a minute, I didn't say I disapprove of blood. It's just that...
- James Gannon: How do you feel about sex?
- Erica Stone: Well, I'm all for it. But some...
- [she suddenly stares at him with a questioning look]
- Dr. Hugo Pine: Nonsense. First she'll go through the typical feminine reaction of indignation, then indifference, then indigestion, then insomnia. Then she'll accept your apologies retroactively.
- James Gannon: I was an obstinate, prejudiced, inconsiderate, coldhearted louse. But at least I was something. Now that I've learned to respect your kind, I'm just a very understanding, remorseful slob. A complete zero.
- James Gannon: I may look like a scholar on the outside but inside I'm still an idiot.
- Dr. Hugo Pine: No!
- James Gannon: An experienced idiot, but I'm still an idiot.
- Erica Stone: Well, Kipling said it quite well in a poem that he wrote: "I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew. Their...
- James Gannon: Their names are: What and why and when and how and where and who.
- James Gannon: Where did you learn the newspaper business? Working for a newspaper and not sitting with your nose in a book at some cockamamie university.
- James Gannon: I told the professor that he was...
- Lloyd Crowley: It's not a he, it's a she.
- James Gannon: Well, I'm glad I didn't know that when I wrote that letter, or I would have really sounded... Do you mean to tell me that now they've got dames teaching unsuspecting suckers how to...
- Lloyd Crowley: Now, Jim...
- James Gannon: Look, Crowley, I don't like eggheads. I don't like colleges. I can't even stand the smell of chalk!
- James Gannon: Barney wants to be a newspaperman. He'll never learn that in school. Your baby's grown up, Mrs. Kovac. He's old enough to decide his future for himself.
- Edna Kovac: Yeah, how can he decide when he don't even know what he don't know?
- James Gannon: And another thing: I don't mind you taking that creep to lunch, but why does it have to cost 6.60? Where do you think you're working? 'Harper's Bazaar'?
- Erica Stone: [reading a letter written by Jim Gannon] "In the school I graduated from, there were no lectures without four letter words in them, no books except those thrown at you to wake you up, no degrees besides the third. Information was gotten by keeping your eyes and ears open, and your nose clean. Inspiration by a swift kick in the pants."
- Erica Stone: He boasts about his exploits with the ladies. Of course, he'll never marry anyone but his job.
- James Gannon: And another thing, I don't want to look at that Phi Beta Kappa's puss around here any longer.
- Erica Stone: If I seem to be rushing things a bit, it's only because I believe in learning by doing.
- Erica Stone: Good newspaper writing is a highly specialized technique.
- James Gannon: Oh, let me take a whack at it.
- James Gannon: I was pretty teed off the first time I came here. My friend, the reporter, he said that you'd be a frustrated old biddy who'd read the textbooks and never written a line. And taking a course from someone like that would be like betting on a three-legged horse, he said.
- James Gannon: You know, you were rough on him - *awfully* rough - and I don't think he meant...
- Erica Stone: Rough? I should have been a lot *rougher*.
- James Gannon: What do I have to do to get kept after school - again?
- Erica Stone: Well, as a matter of fact, I was wondering if you'd stay after class tonight for a private conference? I have a proposition to make to you,
- Erica Stone: Now, let's see. What sort of thing would you like to tackle next?
- James Gannon: [stares at Erica Stone's behind as she walks past him] Well, I, eh...
- Erica Stone: [turns around] You see, I want you to get the *feel* of investigative reporting. To learn to root out the hidden reasons and facts.
- Erica Stone: It's very stimulating for a teacher to find a student with an inquiring mind, you know, someone who challenges her.
- Erica Stone: You'd have to have private instruction. Oh, I'd work *very* closely with you.
- James Gannon: Well, in that case...
- Erica Stone: Do you have any free time during the day?
- James Gannon: No, I am afraid we'd have to work together at night.
- Erica Stone: As my father used to say, "A reporter has to do a lot of sweating, before he earns the right to perspire. "
- James Gannon: Nobody's interested in a rehash like this. After all, it happened a week ago. Doing another story on it would be like trying to make a salad out of old lettuce.
- Erica Stone: Young Salas gave a vague, bitter, tormented reason. But behind that why are a hundred other whys. One on top of another. They led to violence. Was it because he's a member of a minority group struggling to solve the complex problem of assimilation? Did society at large create the climate for this tragedy?
- Erica Stone: Your friend's kind of reporting went out with Prohibition. This isn't a rehash. I'm talking about the big why behind the story. This is the function of a newspaper in today's world. TV and radio announce spot news minutes after it happens. Newspapers can't compete in reporting what happened anymore. But they can and should tell the public *why* it happened.
- James Gannon: You see that fancy-Dan over there clipping pictures out of the paper? He's got a golden key: Phi Beta Kappa. I keep him around for laughs.
- James Gannon: Anything?
- Bill: Nothing much. They found a homemade bomb in a locker at Grand Central. No damage.
- James Gannon: Must be that same screwball.
- Harold Miller: There's quite a bit on that Puerto Rican situation. It's getting more explosive every day.
- James Gannon: Got anything on that kid that killed the grocer at 110th Street?
- Barney Kovac: Roy said it was all right with him, if it was all right with you, that I could try writing a few obituaries.
- James Gannon: Yeah, I think that's a good idea. And here's a great one to start on: Dr. Hugo Pine.
- Barney Kovac: How did he die?
- James Gannon: I haven't decided yet.