Biography

Spent two summers as an intern at the CIA.

Son of Gloria Vanderbilt (Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt), a socialite and artist, from New York, and Wyatt Cooper (Wyatt Emory Cooper), a writer, from Quitman, Clarke, Mississippi.

Started getting gray hair at the age of 20 and was completely gray by the age of 35.

During his senior year at Dalton, he left school and drove across South Africa in a truck. He contracted malaria while there and had to be hospitalized.

Graduated from Yale in 1989 with a BA in political science.

We do things with a wink and a nod. If you don't include yourself in the critique, you have no business doing it.

Going gray is like ejaculating: you know it can happen prematurely, but when it does it comes as a total shock.

"I very much do not want to become what I used to make fun of. The newscaster on The Simpsons (1989) sadly is not that far off from what you see out there".

I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening.

When the war in Iraq began I was anchoring the overnight coverage for CNN. Your teleprompter is blank and you have four hours to fill, and it can be a very long night if you don't know your stuff. I like that challenge.