People often assume New York City is no place to keep a dog. This is certainly what my parents told me when I was growing up there. But I have found this not to be the case at all.

The times I didn't get jobs I wanted, I remember feeling dispirited - really crestfallen.

I'm talking to anyone who has been dumped - have not gotten the job you really wanted or have received those horrible rejection letters from grad school. You know, the disappointment of losing, or not getting something you badly want. When that happens, show what you are made of.

I think about the question of perspective in reporting all the time, and since I spent 20 years of my career in Washington as both a reporter and an editor I'm keenly aware that a newspaper should not be dominated by stories in which the only voices and perspective come from those in power.

I've had jobs that allow me the flexibility to achieve work-life balance, to be there when one of the kids sinks a jump shot or for the parent-teacher meetings. I can move tasks around. If I don't get something done at the office at 4:30 in the afternoon, I can go back to it at 10:00 in the evening.

I never felt a need to manipulate my career from the outside - try to be someone I wasn't to get ahead.

I just look back, and I say, you know, Christopher Guest just raised my whole career to another level.

I want to have a lengthy career. I want to play interesting characters. I want to tell beautiful stories, complex stories, deep stories.