9/11 - Quotes about the September 11th attacks

I was in New York on September 11 when those planes hit the World Trade Center. At the time, it seemed like it was a local thing. But three or four days later, we realized it wasn't a local thing. You could really feel the states become united. We became the United States of America.

This just in, you are looking at, obviously, a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers.

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the American people deserve to have a fuller picture of what their government knows about those attacks.

In my earpiece, my executive producer told me, "We have a report of a plane going into the World Trade Center. Get to the main anchor set. We're going into rolling coverage." That means you drop the scripts, the teleprompter goes blank, and you go into indefinite live coverage. On the preview monitor, there was the North Tower of the World Trade Center with a big gaping, smoking hole in it. I thought this had to be an accident. But how is it an accident when you have a large passenger jet crash into the World Trade Center on a beautiful, crystal-clear fall day in New York? It seemed inconceivable. It wasn't until the second plane hit that we knew we were in the midst of a terror strike on the United States.

My generation is the generation that experienced school shootings beginning when I was in high school, the generation that fought in the post-9/11 wars, the first generation to have to deal with the reality of climate change, and the first generation not to be better off than our parents materially — if nothing changes.

September 11, 2001, revealed heroism in ordinary people who might have gone through their lives never called upon to demonstrate the extent of their courage.

This was not an act of terrorism, but it was an act of war.

If Clinton had only attacked terrorism as much as he attacks George Bush we wouldn't be in this problem.

On that day, no matter where we came from, what god we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.