David Brinkley in His Own Words

June 12 -- Throughout his life, David Brinkley enjoyed every opportunity to laugh at himself, even as he was hailed as a towering figure in broadcast news.

Brinkley died today at 82. As colleagues mourn his passing, they remember his impact and his singular charm.

Here are some remembrances, as well as some comments Brinkley made about the news business and his part in it through the years.

Remembrances of Brinkley

"As DiMaggio was the most elegant and spare and graceful ball player of his generation, so too was David Brinkley among broadcast journalists."

— George Will, a longtime panelist on This Week With David Brinkley.

"David Brinkley was a pioneer of broadcast journalism. He was respected forhis integrity, admired for his candor and wit, and distinguished by anexceptional career that spanned more than a half century."

— President George W. Bush.

"I heard David Brinkley even before I saw him. And it still seems to me those rhythms actually changed the quality of news reporting, not just the style. Syncopation. Irony. Individuality. Like a great jazz player gives freedom to those who come behind. He saved journalism from terminal earnestness. And convolution.

— ABCNEWS's Diane Sawyer.

"He represented the best of what we try to do in the news business and he did it with humor. David was not someone who hurled thunderbolts at people. He hurled jokes, if you will, about them — not to demean them — but to leaven the situation. Yet he was a serious journalist."

— ABCNEWS's Sam Donaldson, a longtime panelist on This Week With David Brinkley.

"They came at us like an express train."

— Don Hewitt, producer of CBS's 60 Minutes, explaining the impact of The Huntley-Brinkley Report to the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

"A bit of Americana almost as familiar as the Gettysburg Address."

— McCall's magazine on "Goodnight, David … Goodnight, Chet," the famed sign off of The Huntley-Brinkley Report, on the show's 10th anniversary.