In some theoretical way I know that a half-million people hear the show. But in a day-to-day way, there's not much evidence of it.

I seen a pig so big it’d block out the sun.

One reason I do the live shows - and the monthly speeches at public radio stations - is to remind myself that people hear the show, that it has an audience, that it exists in the world. It's so easy to forget that.

...these stories are a kind of beacon. By making stories full of empathy and amusement and the sheer pleasure of discovering the world, these writers reassert the fact that we live in a world where joy and empathy and pleasure are all around us, there for the noticing.

The entire culture was organized for people who are happy. People who are miserable need reassurance that other people are miserable.

If you're not failing all the time, you're not creating a situation where you can get lucky.

I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'