I used to enjoy the anonymity of being a literary figure and occasionally a public radio figure.

Elwyn Brooks White was a very Maine personality which is, "I hate everyone and everyone stay away from me."

I used to enjoy the anonymity of being a literary figure and occasionally a public radio figure.

One of the things about crowd work that's so exciting is when you discover a character in the audience who's interesting or funny, who you can vibe off of. If someone's got a weird job that you can make reference to throughout, or you can bring that person onstage - humiliate them, or celebrate them! You can put people in conversation with one another. The best is when something that they're doing can reflect back on something that you're doing.

There's a tradition in American fiction that is deadly serious and earnest - like the Steinbeckian social novel.

Truth may be stranger than fiction, goes the old saw, but it is never as strange as lies.

Everyone wants to write a book. Very few people are able to do it.