Sam Donaldson, 73, told a San Jose State University audience that if you want to succeed, you’ve got to work harder than everybody else. The longtime ABC News White House correspondent also told aspiring broadcast journalists that if they got a job offer from CNN tomorrow, they should turn it down and instead work in a smaller market where mistakes won’t damage their careers as much as if they were to make them in the big leagues. According to the student-run Daily Spartan, here are some other quotes from Donaldson:

• “This president viscerally, viscerally doesn’t like the press … He really doesn’t feel he needs to answer questions.”

• “I think no matter who’s elected they will withdraw from Iraq … It’s easy to get into war. As you see today, it’s hard to get out of war. It’s going to end either badly or horribly.”

• “Anytime you don’t question power, you’re not doing your job. If you ask a question and you get anything but a direct answer, you know there’s a problem.”

(Photo credit: James Jeffrey, special to The Spartan Daily)