John Hodgman

I do not think that a museum needs to engage with pop culture in order to make itself interesting to museumgoers. Museums are already interesting and engaging with pop culture for its own sake is just a quick way to seem and become dated.

Not as many people watch 'Doctor Who' as watch the Super Bowl, obviously, but the tropes that attract nerds are no longer a secret cult. It's a much larger culture, in the specific sense.

I am someone who values truth - actual truth as opposed to 'truthiness.'

One can always come up with funny lists and jokes. You know what? I take it back. Not everyone can always come up with funny lists and some jokes. I'm very lucky to have a gift where I can do that pretty ably.

People forget how outcast 'They Might Be Giants' can be. They have a reputation for writing really deft, funny, clever melodies, and they also make a lot of music for kids, which is terrific, but when you see them in concert, they can rock the house.

My type of humor is me not caring whether people know what I'm talking about or not.

Comedy does offer an avenue to television and film careers for untelegenic people that great drama does not.

Well, I always had this desire to celebrate and somehow be a part of things that I thought were really great.

Part of the transaction between writer and reader is the pleasure of building a community and encouraging people to play along.

I feel that there is a decision people make to either engage in a legitimately ridiculous process to get your kid into school, or choose not to engage in that so much, and end up finding a nice local school that fits.

As a freelance writer, I'd be asked to become an expert for various magazines on any subject, whether food or wine or history or the life span of veterinarians. I was completely unschooled in any of these things.

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