41 Quotes by Tom Freston

When I got fired, I had a feeling of loss because Viacom had been a passionate long-term relationship. But I got my balance back. I guess its like getting jilted by a girlfriend, a serious girlfriend. You move on.

We, as Americans, have so much to learn here. We have a shockingly low level of global awareness and familiarity and little idea of how the world sees us. And those disturbing facts keep getting us into a lot of trouble.

I've never been fired in my life. From anything. I've never failed at anything I've tried.

Sometimes I just like the feeling of being a minority and seeing how far you can push yourself in extreme circumstances.

Travel is the best and probably cheapest graduate school you can buy.

Read, listen to and watch everything you can. Explore the corners of popular culture and the arts. And, of course, these days you have to stay maniacally plugged in to the cutting edge of whatever technology is taking your profession into the future - otherwise you're toast.

There's almost nothing that distracts you from your day-to-day problems more than a trip. You're totally consumed in the present, you've got new sense impressions, you've got all this stuff to digest.

I measure success in terms of the connection with the audience, which we've been able to do in spades. I mean, it's very hard to do that. You think about it, you go back in time, you can say, 'Well, there's, like, 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Rolling Stone' or 'MTV.'' I think 'Vice' is in that category now.

I think online is a better platform. If you look at the metrics, if you look at the delivery system, if you look at social - all of the things that online can do - TV can't compete.