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

- Ira Glass

You get into this situation, performing for T.V., where you have to speak with utter sincerity. It's just like the radio. You have to say it like you mean it, even though the thing you're saying is actually planned out.

- Ira Glass

There is a feeling, when you listen to radio, that it's one person, and they're talking to you, and you really feel their presence as one person.

- Ira Glass

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.

- Ira Glass

If you want somebody to tell you a story, one of the most easiest and effective ways is if you're telling them a story.

- Ira Glass

I suppose I shouldn't go around admitting I speak untruths on the radio.

- Ira Glass

I don't read novels, but my semiotics study influenced everything about the way I read and edit and write.

- Ira Glass

But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake.

- Ira Glass

Reporters tend to find in others what they are suited to find, so there is a whole school of reporting where they are cynical about the world, and everything reinforces that. Whereas I tend to be optimistic and be amused by people and like them, even rather bad people.

- Ira Glass

Honestly, I find the analysis of dreams is one of the dullest things. I say this as a therapist kid. I find them deeply uninteresting, as a window to the soul.

- Ira Glass

I think people who live in New York don't realize just how much time they spend talking about the subway.

- Ira Glass

Traditional broadcast media seems old-fashioned and vague to me. When I watch television news, I'm aware of what skilled journalists they are, but I find it hard because of the corny way they present it.

- Ira Glass

Any story hits you harder if the person delivering it doesn't sound like some news robot but in fact sounds like a real person having the reactions a real person would.

- Ira Glass

I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'

- Ira Glass

In general in New York, we all eat like kings. Insane quality, mind-blowing variety, at all price ranges.

- Ira Glass

Honestly, there are so many things about structuring a story for film and telling a story for film that are really different from doing radio.

- Ira Glass

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.

- Ira Glass

Harry Potter to me is a bore. His talent arrives as a gift; he's chosen. Who can identify with that? But Hermione - she's working harder than anyone, she's half outsider, right? Half Muggle. She shouldn't be there at all. It's so unfair that Harry's the star of the books, given how hard she worked to get her powers.

- Ira Glass

I am such a do-goody, people-pleasing kid - or I was - I don't think I've ever been fired, not even from an ice cream shop, magician for kids' parties, not even in my early jobs in radio.

- Ira Glass

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.

- Ira Glass