I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be.

It's hard to make something that's interesting. It's really, really hard. It's like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that's written or anything that's created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity... So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will.

But sadly, one of the problems with being on public radio is that people tend to think you're being sincere all the time.

You will be fierce. You will fearless. And you will make work you know in your heart is not as good as you want it to be.

I think good radio often uses the techniques of fiction: characters, scenes, a big urgent emotional question. And as in the best fiction, tone counts for a lot.

I wish that someone had said to me that it's normal to feel lost for a little while.

It takes a while. It's gonna take you a while. It's normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.