you write the religion column and it is only on the web, mostly? >> well, it is so different now. i was in television for a while. i was the first network anchorwoman when i did at the cbs morning news. >> be careful, we have a clip to show you. >> it is not my best moment. [laughter] at any rate, that thing i loved was ratings was everything. i lasted for six months and went back to "the post." well, what has changed with the web is that is the case. ratings are everything and traffic is everything. the most beautiful word in the english language and now is going viral. you want your story to be out of there and for people to read them. that puts a lot of pressure on reporters and journalists. it skews the way you look at what you write and how you write

it. what people might want to read in the newspaper if you are writing a solid story that you know is a responsible news story that should be in the paper, but you also know it will not get a lot of traffic, you may not be as enthusiastic as writing about paris hilton. >> which of your stories has gotten the biggest response? >> i did a column about suffering and how no one gets a pass and we all suffer. that seemed to resonate.

people really responded to that in a way i was stunned. people stopped me on the street. their eyes welled up with tears telling me their stories. it was interesting because i was talking to my editor and talking to him about my feelings about suffering. he said you have to write that. at first, i got -- you would be happy to know the productive aging award from the center for jewish -- center for something -- i cannot remember the name of the organization. it is a very good organization. and so i gave a speech to them and they honored me at this dinner. i gave a speech. it was my speech and i cut it back and made it into a column. >> how much of the suffering of your husband's dementia have you written about? >> i have not written about it at all. he was diagnosed a while ago. it became obvious that he had a

serious problem about two years ago. i began to tell people. i am writing a memoir for harper. i will write about it a lot in that. >> how has that impacted you? does he know you? >> he does know who i am. yes. we actually called hospice care this week. i thought this is going to be not so hard. ben will gradually lose his memory and you ask me to repeat things and it will just be -- it has been the most horrible experience i have ever had. up until recently and -- he is still at home.

i have him sleeping in the bed with me and i will until the end. a certain peace has come over me, a feeling of serenity, because what i thought was going to be horrible, the caretaking part, has became something almost sacred. that is not -- that is not drivel. i did not expect that. i expected i would have nervous breakdowns.

i did not think we have ever been as loving with the each other as we are now. we spent a lot of time together. we hold hands. he knows me. he loves having to be there. it is just extremely rewarding to be able to be there for him now to try to make him happy and give as much love until he dies. >> 93 years old? >> 93 in august. >> a clip when you and ben were here in 1993. >> where did you two meet and when did you get married? >> we met at "the washington post." sally came looking for a job. she went first as a -- to be a secretary to phil, who was editor of the editorial page.

i told him that he would get in trouble if he hired her, and later on i hired her. >> so he didn't. >> i hired her sally to write for the style section. we became friends after she left "the post." she called me mr. bradlee the day she left to go to cbs. we hooked up that year, 1973. >> 20 years ago this june. >> and about how many years? >> 41 years we have been together. we will celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. >> what were the best moments of your professional careers? >> for ben, watergate, nothing can compare. it was a very stressful time. we got together in the middle of watergate.

i left the paper because i was in love with ben. i knew there was no way i could get involved with him when he was going through this. he was being watched and the nixon people had people following him around. it would destroy his credibility. and so, i quit. i took the job at cbs which i did not want to do. i did not want to move to new york. i had a boyfriend in new york. someone i cared about very much. but by that time i was in love with ben. i realize i had no choice. i did quit. after i quit and move to new york, i said i was in love with him. we ended up together.

he immediately left his wife. they had been estranged for several years. it was ok. but it was too much at stake for us to be together while he was going through watergate and still married. >> given the fact you had such a strong reaction on your column on suffering, what would you tell people about dementia that might help them deal with it? >> sandra day o'connor's husband, john, had it and she ended up putting him in a nursing home in arizona. everybody has his or her own way of dealing with this. sandra was a great friend of my parents. about a year ago, i saw her at a reception and i said i want to just ask you about this. we went off and she put her hands on my shoulder and her

eyes sort of teared up and she said, "i want you to know it is really horrible. it is really, really horrible. there is nothing good about it." i think, what i think people need to be realistic about what it is, the first thing you do is hide it. that is what everybody did. i said he is just forgetting his keys and glasses. it was not until he was speaking in front of a group and he was doing a conversation with john meacham and he had a blackout the day before and i said to him that morning do you think you want to do it? he said, no, i am fine. he got on the stage with meacham and he cannot answer questions.

he did not know when he went to war or when he was at "the post." i was there just dying. i had a knot in my stomach. at one point he looked panicked. >> did you know he was having trouble with memory then? >> oh, yeah. until that moment he had been ok. that blackout took the cognitive -- took its toll on him cognitively. it was after that, you could see he was in a decline. i started telling people. i could not hide it anymore. once you say the a-word, everybody's attitude changes toward you.

i have to say that our friends have been absolutely extraordinary. people continue to invite us to dinner and come to our house to dinner. i have tried to keep ben as engaged as possible. the more he is engaged, the slower it goes. he has been part of a men's group that is fantastic. 12 guys with alzheimer's or dementia. he had to stop last week. they asked him not to come back. that has been fabulous. we have had people over to dinner two or three nights a week. even though he cannot participate, he loves being around people. that is all finished. in the last six weeks, he has had such a decline that he cannot participate at all anymore. i had a birthday party for him in august and he was able to come downstairs and blow out the candles. friends, my son lives in the house next door so he comes

over. i moved my office downstairs so i could be close to him. there has been a constant stirring of people coming and visiting. he goes to the office once a week to have lunch. i have a running tab at the madison so they could take him over and they will talk about the good old days. people have been incredible. they have been wonderful to ben and me. i think that has really kept him going. all of the activity. and i also think for people who are with -- to try to keep active. a lot of people sort of shut down their whole lives. somebody said to me, somebody close to nancy reagan said she shut her life down and just took care of ronnie. i am not doing that. i work full time. i go out with friends for dinner

at night. i have to keep my life going. i tried to get as much sleep as i can even though it is difficult because ben is up a lot at night. getting enough sleep is essential and eating well and exercising. it is like putting a mask on your face on the airplane before you put it on someone else. you have to be healthy. if i get tired, i get weepy. i think people need to keep on with their lives and have people come over and set and have a cup of coffee. just come over and get a couple of people and have a drink or something.

just do not shut your life down. and that is the problem that so many people have. it is really hard. nobody should ever believe it is not easy. >> is he aware of what is going on? >> he knows -- i tease him and say in my next life i will be ben bradlee. not just for this, but for other reasons to. he has never been depressed a day in his life. i have been with him over 40 years and i have never seen him depressed. he is very happy. he is taking care of. he has people fluttering around him every minute. he is so well taken care off. he is a happy and loves to be false over. he is very aware of being taken care of and fussed over. he appreciates that.

he sleeps now about 20 hours a day and does not sleep much. he is totally content. >> on a lighter note, i told you we had to this video of you, your first day at cbs. >> oh, no. [laughter] you are not going to do that to me. >> you have to stay in engaged. it is not long. it is only a minute. what year was it? >> 1973. >> you lasted six months. you had never done television. you were on with hughes rudd. he is no longer with us. >> he was a really bad boy. >> here is a minute. >> from the cbs newsroom, this is the cbs morning news. with hughes rudd and sally quinn. >> we should begin with saying a little bit about what we are.

a lot of people do not consider me a common site. if nothing else saying back to you and that sort of thing. sally quinn is not the commonplace site. she is a former washington post reporter and we are glad to have her. >> the first day i come on tv i start off with a sore throat and fever. back to you. >> as long as it does not make you delirious. we have a lot of people who are delirious and they usually run for politics. >> six months. >> i was delirious. i was so sick. it was stress. i could hardly stand up. >> what was television like? >> i hated it. i love sitting here in talking to you but first of all, the show was from 7:00 in of the

morning. they wanted us to get up at 1:30 and be in the studio so we could write the show, which was ridiculous. they wanted a "post" writer to write the show. hughes was a brilliant writer. we would sit in there and they would bring lunch in. it was chinese food. >> why was hughes rudd a bad boy? >> he was very mischievous and iconoclastic. both of us, we had this cult following. were both so outrageous on tv and when he said things and that nobody had ever said before on live tv. the cbs suits were crazed because they cannot believe what was going on.

it was like the jon stewart show. that's what it was like. there were little touches of "saturday night live." if we had done that show at night, it would of been a huge hit. [laughter] it was not what people wanted to watch. our biggest fan was andy warhol. andy got up and watched religiously. he loved the show. he was waiting for one of us to say something outrageous. it was so not conventional. getting up in the morning and i could not write. that is what i love doing writing pieces for "the washington post." at that time i was in love with ben. and we were already together and nobody knew it. we were meeting quietly. he was flying up to new york and meeting me.

and i was exhausted all of the time. i would see ben on the weekends. my biological -- not my biological clock, that was a freudian slip. my circadian rhythm was off. i was not having any fun. i loved hughes and being with him was wonderful but i was getting criticized for what i was doing. reading the news was not what i wanted to do. it was not fun. >> i saw a video of you taking a tour of your home. you are fairly public in these

columns about your life. why do you want to share all of this with people and how does that impact your life? >> people ask me that a lot. i am not a private person. >> what to do think when politicians say they are private people will? >> it makes me laugh. i have many people i will consider private who would showing at the idea of any type of public and. it is a way of connecting. it is a way of connecting to people with people because i am sharing what i am going through and people respond to that and i like that. people say me too, i know what you mean. people feel helped or reassured by it. it is generally not boasting when i write about myself or what is going on. it is about what is happening in my family. >> what about the fallout about

the wedding? is that complicated things to explain. >> it is complicated. ben's granddaughter was getting married. at that point, there was sort of a separation in the family of some of us, some of his children, some of them. and i were not getting along and ben was not getting along with them either. we decided not to go to the wedding because we felt it would be too awkward. at that point, ben had dementia and that was part of the problem. >> that was not made public? >> nobody knew. he did not want to go. >> let me explain. ben's son by his first marriage who was married to martha radek had a daughter and it was her wedding. >> we adored her.

>> we adored her. greta. we absolutely adored her. she was like my child. i loved her. because of the situation, it would of been too painful and complicated and ben did not want to go. it got out with my son, quinn, was getting married, his fiancee was pregnant so we had to move up the wedding date. the only date we could get at the national cathedral was in this one day in three months that was available, the church and the minister. we chose the date and had the wedding invitations made up. and i called up the members of my family and the other members of ben's family and they said fine. we began to send out the invitations and we found a it was the same date as ben's granddaughter. there was a rash of stories about how this was upsetting to everyone.

>> you wrote about it? >> we went to saint martin and my son and daughter-in-law were there and there were some really horrible things written on the internet about them. they had nothing to do with any of this. it was just one of these awful mistakes. they were getting criticized. quinn is very learning disabled and people were calling him a retard and awful stuff and they were distraught and asked me to do something. she was pregnant and was having a miscarriage at the time. i was distraught.

i called my editors and said how can i combat this terrible publicity? i am so unhappy about what they are writing about the kids. they said why don't you try to write something and i did. i wrote this piece and it was accepted by everybody's paper including the managing editor who said terrific and they ran it. and then there was this reaction to it. i came back and [laughter] it was a very difficult time for me and ben, who was extremely agitated because he did not understand and was very confused about what was happening. i showed him the piece but his judgment was not great. >> let's show a clip of your

son, quinn. >> everybody has a different way of learning. whether you have learning disabilities or not. learning difference is a more subtle, and is able is a pretty -- "disabled" is a pretty harsh word. >> another point of language is you do not call other kids normal, you call them typical and you are not typical. >> i have never really understood the word "normal" because i have been a fuse by my whole -- i have been confused by it my whole life. after having being educated about definitions and the word, i realized in theory there is no such thing as normality. >> 32 years old? >> yes.

>> did quinn get divorced? >> he is in the process of getting divorced. >> tell about the piece. >> he wrote about the divorce and -- >> he did? >> you were upset at a reporter. >> he wrote a piece that quinn's wife had posted some pictures of her, some sexy pictures not anything pornographic and put on her facebook page and how he saw them through a friend's facebook page and wrote about it. it made it sound sleazy. i e-mailed him and said i am so

disappointed in you, and that was it. it was not a big deal. >> the memoir comes out when? >> my due date is a year from this week. that means i have to write it, brian. >> you are in the middle of the difficult piece with your husband. on the column, what are some of the columns you want to topple that you have not written yet? >> i am writing to or three pieces now and one is about the pledge of allegiance and get "under god" taken out and i agree. it was flapped on it there in the 1950's and it had never been there. i am doing an interview with

busboys and poets, with the man who wrote "zealot," about jesus. i interviewed him yesterday about what isis is and they consider themselves muslims. if you ask muslims, they will tell you these people do not represent islam but in fact, what the koran says, a way to cherry pick it to make it a peaceful religion or violent religion the same as christianity or judaism or any other religion. i am working on it that and i will be doing a piece on sam harris, who has a book out now called "waking go spirituality -- waking up spirituality without religion." i will do an interview with karen armstrong about her new book. >> one more time, people want to read your column and they go where? >> they google on faith. >> and your whole life is on the google. >> i have never googled myself. [laughter] >> try it.

sally quinn, we are out of time. thank you very much. >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at q-and-a.org. "q&a" programs are also available as c-span podcasts. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] here are some of the comments we've recently read -- received from our viewers. to the situation,

currently red is going on with disease in climates in our society. in andit very rewarding i appreciate your efforts. becauseontinue to do so i have survival information that i can go to when i do projects for school. wish you would concentrate on areas important to people, such as obamacare. people who have been hurt i had, people who have been helped by it. items like minimum wage. the difference between the cost of living in various states, how people feel about immigration and unemployment and, as i mentioned before, tax reform