 I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio. |
| Where radio is different than fiction is that even mediocre fiction needs purpose, a driving question. |
| But sadly, one of the problems with being on public radio is that people tend to think you're being sincere all the time. |
| Just when did I get to the point when staying at a hotel wasn't fun? |
| 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. |
| We're Jews, my family, and Jews break down into two distinct subcultures: book Jews and money Jews. We were money Jews. |
| But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake. |
| It's not a terribly original thing to say, but I love Raymond Carver. For one thing, he's fun to read out loud. |
| You'd think that radio was around long enough that someone would have coined a word for staring into space. |
| 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. |
| When I say something untrue on the air, I mean for it to be transparently untrue. I assume people know when I'm just saying something for effect. Or to be funny. |
| 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. |
