For me—this is gonna sound really clichéd and hokey—but I do believe that there’s something important about bearing witness, and that there’s nothing worse than somebody dying in silence.
Catalog
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American journalist, television personality, and author. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live from CNN's studios in Washington, D.C., or on location for breaking news stories. In addition, he is a major correspondent for 60 Minutes. From September 2011 to May 2013, he also served as host of his own eponymous syndicated daytime talk show, Anderson Live. 2Early life and family Cooper was born in New York City, the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and the artist, fashion designer, writer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. His maternal grandparents were millionaire equestrian Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and socialite Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and his maternal great-great-great-grandfather was business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded the prominent Vanderbilt shipping and railroad fortune. He is also a descendant, through his mother, of Civil War brevet Major General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, who was with General William T. Sherman on his march through Georgia. Through his "Vanderbilt" line, he is a second cousin, once removed, of screenwriter James Vanderbilt. Cooper's media experience began earl
Anything is possible. But with suicide we like to think it’s this clear thing, one way or the other. And it’s not. That’s the horrible thing about suicide. The family members are left for their entire lives wondering why.
No, it wasn’t a death wish. But, look, I was in a lot of pain. And I wanted to be around other people who were in pain as well. In America, people don’t talk about grief. They don’t talk about loss very much. It makes people very uncomfortable. And I wanted to be around other people who— where life…
injects a language and vocabulary into your life that’s suddenly there. And that’s why [members of the same family] commit suicide. If your parent commits suicide, there’s a much greater chance that you will commit suicide later in life.
It’s not the first thing, but there’s not a day that goes by that you don’t think about it. That’s the thing about suicide.
It wasn’t even so much that I wanted to be a reporter. I’d always been interested in wars and insurgencies, particularly obscure countries and insurgencies. But I was also, at that point, really interested in survival. Why some people survive and other people don’t. Why two people growing up in a…
From the time I was growing up, if I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don’t know that I would have been so motivated.
My dad was from Mississippi. We are from a really poor family. He died when I was ten. There’s a saying that my mom actually used to say to me when I was a kid, which is, 'A fatherless child thinks all things are possible and nothing is safe.'
I do think in cable news that the networks that have strong opinions—whether you’re a conservative network like Fox or a liberal network like MSNBC—when there’s not a huge news story going on, they’re entertaining, and those are what people tune in to.