Skip to main content

Daily Inspiration Quote by Anderson Cooper

"I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it"

About this Quote

Cooper is selling authenticity, but in the careful, practiced way only a veteran journalist can. The line reads like a mantra for an era when every public person is expected to be a brand and every brand is expected to be a personality. His insistence on being "yourself" and "real" isn’t romantic; it’s operational. In reporting, credibility is less about sounding certain than about showing your work: what you saw, what you verified, what you can’t yet confirm.

The quote’s power comes from its looping, almost breathless repetition. "You have to" stacks into a kind of ethical drumbeat, as if he’s arguing against a gravitational pull toward performance. And the most revealing clause is the least glamorous: "admit what you don’t know". That’s a rebuke to the pundit economy, where confidence often outruns evidence and ignorance gets laundered into hot takes. Cooper frames uncertainty not as weakness but as a boundary marker - the line that keeps inquiry from becoming propaganda.

There’s also a subtle permission structure embedded here. He’s not saying stay silent until omniscient; he’s saying you can talk about what you don’t know if you label it honestly. That’s a newsroom standard (verification, attribution, caveats) translated into personal ethics. In a media ecosystem built to punish nuance and reward certainty, Cooper’s point is quietly radical: truth-telling begins with epistemic humility, and the audience can feel the difference.

Quote Details

TopicHonesty & Integrity
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Cooper, Anderson. (2026, January 18). I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-you-have-to-be-yourself-and-you-have-to-15216/

Chicago Style
Cooper, Anderson. "I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-you-have-to-be-yourself-and-you-have-to-15216/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I think you have to be yourself, and you have to be real and you have to admit what you don't know, and talk about what you do know, and talk about what you don't know as long as you say you don't know it." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-you-have-to-be-yourself-and-you-have-to-15216/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Anderson Add to List
Anderson Cooper on Credibility and Humility
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is a Journalist from USA.

12 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Sugar Ray Leonard, Athlete
Saint Francis de Sales, Clergyman
Saint Francis de Sales
Jim Carrey, Actor
Jim Carrey