There is no ritual that enhances creativity other than just starting.

Houdini, the magician who debunked magic, could not bear to see the great rationalist [Arthur Conan] Doyle enchanted by ghosts and frauds. And so he did what any friend would: He set out to prove spiritualism false and rob his friend Doyle of the only comforting fiction that was keeping him sane. It was the least he could do.

Hosting a TV show is a full-time job in which success is defined by it never ending.

I really wouldn't censor myself. But because it was on such a slower scale, I would throw things out, and I indulged the personal stuff as little flashes of truth. Little in-jokes for anyone who was paying particular attention.

I'm a personality - like a George Plimpton who effectively plays himself in a bunch of different roles, or a Paul Lynde-type character.

I am a marginally employed person who can escape with my school teacher wife to the waters of Maine for much of the summer.

Creating fake facts does require a measure of haphazard research, insofar as they need to not just be possible, but also interesting.