Gay Talese: “I see so many possibilities. I see things from so many conflicting point of views. I am not judgmental, which is one of the terrible things about me. I am not judgmental.”

Lea Thau: “This is the single thing that I love the most about your work, and this is what I try to do in my work and it is this profound sympathy you have for these perfectly flawed human beings that you profile. And I think that maybe this is the biggest difference between being a journalist and a storyteller is that a journalist or a reporter always seems to want to poke holes and punch holes in what people and show the inconsistencies, and also, you are not denying peoples’ flaws you’re not making them into these idealized versions of themselves, but there is a profound sympathy for the ways in which they are a flawed human being and there is in someways a desire to make them as whole, as understandable, as likeable as possible and I love that about what you do.”

There are times, believe it or not, when I am listening to a podcast other than Serial (that is also not even a podcast about Serial) and I am so moved by the words that I feel compelled to sit and transcribe them–to play them over and over again as I type feverishly with my headphones on my ears–because they give me pause, in a good way, and make me feel like a part of something.

-From KCRW’s “Strangers”, in the episode entitled, “Gay Talese: Committed Voyeur”, from May 9, 2013.

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