Mary Pilon Quotes

Mary Pilon

Profession : Journalist

Birth : May 16, 1986

Social media has created a digital latticework, but it has also, for some, created abusive commenters, silos, and validation rather than curiosity.

Mary Pilon

I've often wondered if the trade-off for growing up in the relative newness and freshness of the West Coast was befuddlement when it comes to historical preservation. We don't have many old things, and we don't really know what to do with the few that are around when our default response is to compost or field burn.

Mary Pilon

Because sports are a religion, it's difficult to imagine a world without the Olympics, and to be sure, they have given us many glorious moments.

Mary Pilon

Many of my 20- and 30-something peers struggle with student loan debt and high rent, and more than once, I've erupted in laughter at the idea that I will collect any Social Security in my Betty White years.

Mary Pilon

Money can be a reflection of our perceptions of power, self-esteem, personal history, fears, and happiness.

Mary Pilon

Some Americans, like those working in government or nonprofits, know the consequences of having their salaries public.

Mary Pilon

Competing in junior fencing requires lessons, equipment, and travel that may cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month, keeping talented athletes from wielding sabers or masks.

Mary Pilon

Women's marathoning was not added as an Olympic medal event until 1984 due to unfounded and bizarre concerns among Olympic organizers about women's ability to run longer distances. It was finally added after much campaigning.

Mary Pilon

As a producer, it's not unusual to find yourself on the field, backstage, often with a camera crew and living with constant anxiety of accidentally ending up in the shot.

Mary Pilon

As it turns out, just hanging out around athletes doesn't actually make one more fit.

Mary Pilon

The more I think about the Olympics, even from afar, its mere concept stuns me. I can't think of any other line of work where, every four years, people gather to be ranked one, two, and three, then are more or less told to evaporate until the next go-around.

Mary Pilon

Endnotes, often confused with footnotes that live at the bottom of a page, is that lump of text at the end of the book, sometimes even relegated to a tiny font size. They're often forgotten but, in nonfiction, particularly history books, can offer a fascinating footprint into the author's research, a joyful, geeky abyss.

Mary Pilon

I'm a realist about who really reads books and who acts like they read books.

Mary Pilon

It's still thrilling, even if my work is something that people even pretend they're interested in on a first date or at a cocktail party.

Mary Pilon

No one in my family was a journalist, and it didn't seem like a real job. Part of me still doesn't think it is.

Mary Pilon

In reporting, you will often be humbled by the courage others have in telling and trusting you with their tale, no two alike.

Mary Pilon

When George Hirsch ran the New York City Marathon in 1976, the first year the course snaked through all five boroughs, the event was a lean affair. He and two thousand others dodged wayward bicycles and pedestrians on the streets, with little help from an anemic police presence.

Mary Pilon

With a smartphone in tow and a playlist humming, a runner may miss the crunch of leaves underfoot, the enthusiastic cheers of benevolent strangers, or even her own breath. And, for many runners, leaving the mobile device at home is the most liberating part of the sport.

Mary Pilon

There are good reasons for not wanting to host the Olympics. The Games can be costly and, in spite of their patriotic overtones, can unintentionally expose a nation's weaknesses to the world.

Mary Pilon

For professional athletes, the motives for cheating generally are more obvious: money, fame, and often a low likelihood of being caught. But why would a middle- or back-of-the-pack runner lie or cheat in a race that doesn't even matter?

Mary Pilon