Quotes from Ira Glass

I just have a harder time, I think, feeling close to people without self consciousness.

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

Like most people in radio - and in magic - I'm not cool. I know people who are hip, and I can feel distance between them and me.

I am mostly a pretty worried person. In conversations, I am always worried about what to say.

The story is a machine for empathy. In contrast to logic or reason, a story is about emotion that gets staged over a sequence of dramatic moments, so you empathize with the characters without really thinking about it too much. It is a really powerful tool for imagining yourself in other people's situations.

In radio, you have two tools. Sound and silence.

It's not a terribly original thing to say, but I love Raymond Carver. For one thing, he's fun to read out loud.

'Smallville' is like a Domino's pizza. While you're eating, you're thinking, 'This is good, and it reminds me of pizza, but there's not enough flavor in each bite.' That's the feeling you have the entire time with 'Smallville' - that it's just about to be good, but it never is.

The pledge drive has everything going against it as broadcasting. It's repetitive. It's ad-libbed by people who can't ad-lib. It's about asking for money, which is something nobody wants to hear, even from their own relatives.

I'm a reporter - if I don't interview someone, I don't have much to say, and I definitely can't just sit down and knock out 800 words on any subject you give me.

When I was a bad writer, I would consciously imitate other NPR writers who I thought were wonderful. I suppose that everyone's artistic practice is different. But I collaborate and sometimes don't agree at all with my collaborators' opinions. It forces you to understand why you don't agree with something: what's the fight you're picking.

I remember that in Baltimore, where I grew up, we would drive by the radio station and tower of WBAL, and I would try to picture the people inside and what they did there.

I have a pit bull. He's a rescue. He's adorable.

I think one of the reasons that I got so good at it, as somebody making radio stories, is that on the radio I can actually - I can understand what's happening in the interview and can make a connection in a way that makes sense.

People are generally forced to change. We don't want to change, and then something absolutely forces us to realize that what we are doing isn't working or that our picture of the world is wrong. We fail. So we change.

I love traveling. But I haven't had big, transformative experiences while on the road. When I go out on the road, it's to go out and get a story or do a promotional event.

A lot of broadcasting, I think, is doing a tremendous amount of preparation and trying to act like, 'Oh, this thought is just occurring to me right now' - and speaking sincerely.

I was a freelancer all through my 20s and was very slow to get good at what I did.

I don't own a radio. I listen to everything through apps or on my iPhone. And then I download the shows I like. Shows like 'Fresh Air', 'Radiolab', 'Snap Judgement', all those shows.

I don't know how to read. I get all my news from Jon Stewart every day.

In most daily journalism, you only fact-check something if it seems a little fishy.

I eat the same breakfast and lunch every day, both at my desk. I employ no time-saving tricks at all.

It's tricky, performing the show live. Because when you're in a big auditorium, in front of 700 people, the natural tendency is to want to talk louder. You want to project.

Honestly, I am so ignorant of how dance works that I cant even imagine a story that you would want to tell through movement.