Top 25 John Hodgman Quotes

If you look in the dictionary under ‘perfectionist,’ you see Henry Selick correcting the definition of perfectionist in the dictionary. I mean, he is so meticulous.

A lot of my time is spent reading antique or out-of-print books of reference.

The few people who ask to have their photographs with me, I almost always say yes, except for a few circumstances, like when my family is around.

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

I actually own a copy of my own book; that’s how dedicated I am as an author.

When I listen to music – I don’t particularly do it for fun all that much. It’s not a big part of my life, and I’m not really on top of what’s happening in the world of music in the way I was when I was a teenager.

I know electric knives are excellent for carving turkeys that have had their bones removed and been forced into a mold to shape them. Please note that those turkeys are called hams.

Everyone wants to write a book. Very few people are able to do it.

I know nothing about letting go.

While I understand that all things must come to an end, whether it’s a television advertisement or one’s life or the world itself, it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.

As you know, the thing that I know the least about is the topic of sports.

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.

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

Generally speaking, I, like anyone else who does anything publicly, like it when people like what I do, and would like to hear as much.

My fame is due to broadcast television.

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

I’m a personality – like a George Plimpton who effectively plays himself in a bunch of different roles, or a Paul Lynde-type character.

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.

All books should be trilogies; I mean I think we all agree on that.

My biggest superhero of writing is Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine fabulist. He’s an amazingly perceptive writer, but also willing to make a joke.

I would be good for maybe not the center square but an upper square on ‘Hollywood Squares.’

For a long time, I would write without music, because I thought it was distracting until I appreciated that it actually unlocks a certain unconscious productivity vault in my mind.

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

More people have more access to more readers for less money than ever before in history. It means a lot of dross; but it means a lot of very talented people can find and nurture a readership in ways that were not possible twenty years ago. From a creative perspective, that is all that writing is about.

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