The radio was my pal. I was just crazy about it.

I'm a very straight-laced, conservative news kind of guy.

With radio, the listener absorbs everything.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.

I go home by noon, and I'm in bed by 6 p.m. I get up at 1 and do it again.

I used to listen to the soap operas with my grandmother.

I wake about 1 a.m. I'm in the office by 2 a.m. We're on the air at 5.

Any outfit that has to beg its listeners for money is an organization that has to constantly please its listeners or it will dry up and go away. It shouldn't work when you think about it.

Public radio has always been so powerless.

I think we're doing the right things for the right reasons. We're not doing it to sell products. We're not doing it to be popular. We're doing it because in our judgment these stories are important to do, and at this length and this much depth.

When Solomon said there was a time and a place for everything he had not encountered the problem of parking his automobile.

But when you see personal artifacts relating to - by genealogy at least - a living human being, it was just more impressive to me than just about anything I've ever read about slavery before.

In college, I got interested in news because the world was coming apart. The civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the women's right movement. That focused my radio ambitions toward news.

It's also a more personal medium. It seems to go directly to one's brain. There are no pictures to distract.

I got to know every format of every station and who was on and what time.

I wanted to be one of the voices in the box.

Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen.

People are always ready to admit a man's ability after he gets there.

Good things just keep happening.

In my case, the listener is often in an automobile driving to work. You can concentrate on the road while still getting an audio message that can be riveting.

I've never been able to predict the future of anything.

Never exaggerate your faults, your friends will attend to that.

The pictures are created by the listener, with a little help from the broadcaster. The pictures are perfect. If you're showing pictures, different things in that picture can distract from the spoken word.

At a tiny station in New Albany, Indiana, which is right across from the river from Louisville, Kentucky, where I grew up. The Louisville stations were loath to hire beginners, so I had to go across the river.

I was encouraged to read aloud in class and vocalize.

If you want anything done well, do it yourself. This is why most people laugh at their own jokes.

The radio was my pal. I was just crazy about it.

Between 2 and 5 I'm reading in to find out what's been going on while I've been asleep.

I'm still excited at being at a microphone and talking to listeners. I love that. It's the most basic element of what I do and I still enjoy it very much.

Nobody cares about your wardrobe, what your tie looks like, or even if you're wearing one, and I don't.

Some are pre-taped interviews because maybe we can't get that person live or maybe we're not sure it's going to work out right so we tape it an hour in advance.

That's the problem with news interviews, you work your tail off to get prominent figures in the news on the radio, but once they've been on, the event passes, the urgency, the issues you talked about evaporate.

Meanwhile, the meek are a long time inheriting the earth.

When I was little, my grandma used to get romance novels, and she would get hundreds of these, and she'd read a dozen a month.

I was really freaked out when I heard that Cookie Monster was going to be changed to Veggie Monster, but that turned out to be a lie.

I worked in rep for six years, then I came to London and to the National Theatre. What's better than that?

I'll tell you what I think is not okay. Have you ever seen that show on MSNBC, 'Lockup?' It's a reality show that takes place inside a prison. Do the prisoners have to sign release forms? Or do they have to be on it whether they like it or not?

Sometimes I talk to religious people about my column or what I do, and I ask them to, you know, read 20 or 30 of them and then come tell me that the message at the heart of every column isn't, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' In every possible sense.

I've just written a very gritty, non-magical take on the King Arthur legend, 'Here Lies Arthur,' and I'm currently toying with some other historical ideas, as well as working with the illustrator David Wyatt on some sequels to my Victorian space opera 'Larklight.'

My mum was a wonderful mother. She died, aged 80, of Alzheimer's disease, which was dreadful to watch. I remember she said to me: 'Believe in yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.' I'm sure a lot of my success is due to her words of advice.

I was always aware that this whole Earth is on overload.

Don't let your will roar when your power only whispers.

Ignorance is pass from one generation to other.

Everyone who means well gives advice based on his or her perception. I have realized that while it's important to hear the suggestions, one should only listen to oneself.

I'm proud of my hands; they look like my grandma's.

Any debut novel is usually a case of spitting into the wind - or, just maybe, casting your bread upon the waters. Without an established audience in place, first-time authors have to hope for resonant word of mouth and a receptive reviewer or three.

We should remember that saying 'I love you' is only a beginning. We need to say it, we need to mean it, and most importantly we need consistently to show it. We need to both express and demonstrate love.

Indians felt despondent about Indian governance. Changing that atmosphere of gloom was a very challenging task, and I faced many difficulties in rectifying the situation and bringing back confidence and hope.

I am not a big 'Hunger Games' fan.