The lesson that any thinking person draws from the Stewart saga is that when the government asks questions, run for your lawyer and don’t say a word. Had Stewart kept her mouth shut, she’d be...

I grew up in an environment of jokes and sarcasm and puns. I talk that way, so I write that way.

When I started writing a business column 15 years ago, I knew I’d found the perfect job for myself. As a columnist I could pick my own topic, do my own analysis, say what I...

I wanted to be a columnist so badly that I took a huge pay cut to leave Forbes, which wouldn’t give me a column, and join Newsday, which wanted my column for its Sunday business...

I’ve spent my career trying to help people without connections understand what’s going on so that they have a chance of getting a fair shake from the connected and the powerful.

If a column is crying out for a good line and I can’t come up with it, I troll for help. Communal humor is good, especially if you involve your boss.

If the government decides to put your life under a microscope, do you think it won’t find something? I suspect there’s not an adult in the country who would walk away totally unscathed if every...

If the subject matter isn’t inherently interesting – accounting comes to mind – I’ve got to make it amusing, if only to keep myself awake.

It’s easy to write a good column if you’ve got good information. It’s hard if you have to depend on style alone. I suppose there are people who can get away with styling on a...

People are treating the Stewart case as seriously as Enron when it’s really over trivia.

Teamwork is better than isolation, especially for a columnist.

Report, report, report. Dig, dig, dig. Think, think, think. Don’t stop being a reporter because you’ve become a columnist.

The column’s worked out great for me. I’ve gotten a ton of ego satisfaction, had a lot of fun, won a batch of prizes and occasionally done some public good.

Go for the gold: better one great column and some undistinguished ones than constant mediocrity.