Daily Inspiration Quote by Bob Schieffer

There is a sly humility tucked into this line, the kind journalists learn when their job is to sound certain while living in permanent uncertainty. Schieffer frames identity as an act of insistence, not a credential: he’s “basically” thought of himself as a writer, “whether [he] was or not.” The phrasing quietly rejects the idea that you become a writer when an editor anoints you, a byline appears, or a bookshelf fills. You become one the moment you decide to keep showing up to the blank page, even if the work isn’t good yet, even if the industry hasn’t caught up.

That last clause is the tell. “Whether I was or not” is a confession and a dare: confession that the early self-image may have been aspirational, even delusional; dare because the self-image is what forces the practice. It’s a journalist’s version of fake it till you make it, minus the scammy sheen. It’s closer to vocation than vanity.

In context, Schieffer comes from an era when reporting was a craft learned on the job, often by people who didn’t arrive through elite pipelines. Broadcast journalism especially can trap you in the role of “talker” or “anchor,” a face delivering other people’s words. By calling himself a writer anyway, Schieffer pulls the center of gravity back to the sentence: the discipline of clarity, the responsibility of tone, the moral choice of what to include and what to leave out. The line works because it admits impostor syndrome while refusing to let it drive.