Winfrey discussed her plans for the future, and why she just couldn’t sit around and do nothing in a recent cover with Parade magazine. She also shared her thoughts on President Obama, the state of television and a host of other topics. Check out a few of the tidbits below. –djr
On retirement …
I was questioning, ‘Why don’t I build a boat and sail around the world? Why don’t I learn French and find a nice little house in Provence?’ I could see myself bicycling with my baguettes and the whole thing. But I talked it over with my friends, and they all said, ‘You’re not going to be happy doing nothing.’
On her perception of failure …
What will be a failure is if nobody comes and watches this network. What others will perceive as failure is if some shows don’t succeed. I’m concerned about the bigger overall picture: my belief that people are basically good and want to see the good in them reflected through their experiences and the shows that they watch. This is a gamble I’m taking. I believe that the banal state of television, the kind of insipid space that we’re in — that you can have as many channels as we have and not find anything that really interests you — means that to a great extent we’ve lost our way.
On President Obama …
I think that no one understands until you’ve been in that seat the enormous pressure to please and satisfy everybody. And I think instead of being grateful for where we are and what he has done, we’ve forgotten that we were on the brink of a depression when he took over this office. And as everybody celebrates the holiday season and sits around with their families, regardless of your circumstance, we could’ve had breadlines. How soon we forget that.
