Ed Bradley

I had never been out covering a story, but boy, was that fun.

I always felt more emotionally attached to Cambodia than I did to Vietnam.

That’s when I hit the ground. So in the instant that that round landed and blew me in the air, I had those separate and distinct thoughts. The guy who was standing right next to where I had been standing had a hole in his back I could put my fist into.

The only thing I’d ever done with news was to read copy sitting at the microphone in the studio.

I’d watch my father get up at 5 o’clock and go down to the Eastern Market in Detroit to do the shopping for his restaurant, and get that business going and then go out on his vending machine business.

My uncle was a hero, Lewis Roundtree. He was not even related to me really, but he was always called my uncle. He was like a father to me. I was closer to him than I was my father.

And I always found that the harder I worked, the better my luck was, because I was prepared for that.

There was no one around me who didn’t work hard.

I had no experience with broadcasting basketball games, so I took a tape recorder and went to a playground where there was a summer league, and I stood up in the top of the stands and I called the game.

You know, I think I still have a sense that no matter what you do, no matter what you achieve, no matter how much success you have, no matter how much money you have, relationships are important.

I will not go into a story unprepared. I will do my homework, and that’s something I learned at an early age.

I would listen to how they told the story, to what elements they used, to how it sounded, and that’s who I patterned myself after, the people who were on CBS News.

The Paris peace talks kept a roof over my head and food on the table and clothes on my back because if something was said going in or coming out, I had the rent for the month.

I knew that God put me on this earth to be on the radio.

You can work hard to sharpen your talent, to get better at whatever it is that you do, and I think that’s what it comes back to.

I did anything that would get me on the air.

I made the decision to come back to New York, quit my job and move to Paris.

Professionally, I remember Cronkite as a kid growing up, and more so for me, the importance of Cronkite was not him sitting there at the anchor desk, but him out there doing things.

But you know, I always said that no one else on my block was on the radio, and it was fun.

Then I learned how to do wraparounds and things like that. I had no experience.

Be prepared, work hard, and hope for a little luck. Recognize that the harder you work and the better prepared you are, the more luck you might have.

And I realized that there was no sports reporter, so I started covering sporting events.

My mother worked in factories, worked as a domestic, worked in a restaurant, always had a second job.

I had a lot of fun in Cambodia, much more so in Cambodia than Vietnam.

I stayed three weeks in Paris, fell in love with the city, and decided that I was born to live in Paris.

Probably my mother. She was a very compassionate woman, and always kept me on my feet. And I think part of it is just the way you are, the way you’re raised. And she had the responsibility for raising me.

The people in your life are important. Meaningful relationships with those people are very important.

So I just got on the phone and the engineer just patched me in and I did reports. I’d get a community leader and bring him to the phone, call up the station and do an interview over the phone with the guy.

I taught sixth grade for three and a half years.