Well, my background is journalism. I don't have any creative-writing experience except for one class I took as a sophomore in college.

But I'm thinking about 12 things at once, a hundred thousand times a day. Most people do, I would imagine.

I had grown up as a fan of Studs Terkel. In Chicago he sort of looms large and is mentioned often.

And that's actually the brunt of what we do is, people going straight from their workplace, straight from home, straight into the classroom and working directly with the students. So then we're able to work with thousands and thousands more students.

I'm interested in the human impact of the giant foot of misplaced government. After all, we encounter it every day.

There is travel and there are babies; everything else is drudgery and death.

I think newspapers shouldn't try to compete directly with the Web, and should do what they can do better, which may be long-form journalism and using photos and art, and making connections with large-form graphics and really enhancing the tactile experience of paper.