“I have a stubborn stamina and the joke about me at work is that I’m relentless. Not a prick, not a micromanager, not personally critical, just staying there are all night to play with the words one more time. I know I can be exhausting. If you come to my funeral, tell ‘em I’m sorry.”

“Like all authentic moments, I could only feel it afterwards.”

“What is it like to have your body betray you? We will all find out. The neurons misfire, the synapses don’t click. The auto-immune response of dying of old age — depression, loss of hearing, unsteady legs. Sooner or later, life shows its claws. We all fail. There is a 100 percent mortality rate for [...]

“My fellow managers are rooting for me to fire one of our reporters. I want to throttle him, too, sometimes, but I see something in him. I can talk him from this cliff, but nobody wants me to. I don’t know. No lesson is learned if we just can him as our first move. Just [...]

“We all do our best, I think. We all miss the mark. We get points for getting up each day, trying hard, mostly being kind to each other, knowing what’s coming in the end.”

Paula McMahon: “This weekend was about what matters. The writing. The stories.”

Ben: “It’s like community prayer.”

Mike, in his paper on Dec. 31, 2006, and read out loud just now by his sons:
After running the gauntlet of work and obligation and stress, the end of 2006 leaves many folks feeling nothing but weary. We stumble to a finish line only to get up and start a new race. Will 2007 be [...]

From Patti Palmer Hurd: “All of my life I had a secret passion, to write. Mike took a huge leap of faith and hired me. I am now entering my 6th year of writing, and never write a story without thinking of him. He still raises the bar for me. His presence will always be [...]

Steve, yesterday, on something Mike taught him: “A good way to start a story is with action. And a good way to end a story is with action.”