CARL REINER—COMEDIAN, WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, ACTOR
You know what’s interesting? Downtrodden people, you can’t take music away from them. You can make yourself happy by singing or writing a song. You can’t take that away from them. You can take physical things away from them, but a sense of humor is necessary to get through life. You’ll kill yourself if you don’t have a sense of humor. How did the people live through the Holocaust? They must’ve found something worth living. I’m sure humor might’ve been on the line. It saves people.
AIMEE MANN—MUSICIAN, ACTOR
My attitude is, life is messy for everybody. It’s hard out there, man, and I get it. I certainly understand and have compassion for why you make decisions that don’t seem smart and end up damaging other people, because sometimes the right answer is not obvious, and everybody’s crazy. Everybody’s operating at a deficit, and everybody’s operating out of obsession and fear and desperation and longing. Life is messy. It’s not easy for anyone.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
The more you do something, you lose fear. I was talking to somebody the other day about why I actually think I’m a better president and would be a better candidate if I were running again than I ever have been. It’s sort of like an athlete, you might slow down a little bit, you might not jump as high as you used to, but I know what I’m doing and I’m fearless. You’re not pretending to be fearless.
Also part of that fearlessness is because you’ve screwed up enough times that it’s all happened. I’ve been through this. I’ve screwed up. I’ve been in the barrel tumbling down Niagara Falls, and I emerged and I lived. That’s such a liberating feeling. It’s one of the benefits of age.
It almost compensates for the fact that I can’t play basketball anymore.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Marc and Brendan wish to thank all WTF guests, past, present, and future, especially those whose contributions were used in this book. Thank you for your humor, generosity, and honesty. Thanks to John Oliver for writing the foreword. Thanks to Frank Cappello, Ashley Barnhill, Sam Varela, Sachi Ezura, Anastasia Kousak, Ashley Grashaw, and Jesse Thorn for your assistance on WTF throughout the years. Thanks to all the folks at Midroll, Libsyn, and iTunes who help get the podcast out into the world. Thanks to John Montagna, Nathan Smith, Dima Drjuchin, Jim Wirt, Travis Shinn, and Martin Celis for your personal artistic contributions to WTF. Thanks to Joanna Jordan, Abigail Parsons, Kelly Weber, Lindsey Johnson, Clare Bonsor, and Elizabeth Walid for getting many of these people to talk to us. Thanks to Colin Dickerman and James Melia for being great editors. Thanks to the rest of the Flatiron team, including Bob Miller, Marlena Bittner, Liz Keenan, Nancy Trypuc, Molly Fonseca, Erin Gordon, Steven Seighman, David Lott, Emily Walters, Shelly Perron, and Keith Hayes. Thanks to Henry Sene Yee for designing the cover. Thanks to Laury Frieber for making sure we didn’t break the law. Thanks to Daniel Greenberg for representing us so well. Thanks to Olivia Wingate for being there at the very beginning. Thanks to David Martin and Kelly Van Valkenburg for making sure everything got signed. Thanks to Harvey Altman and Rob Urio for making sure everything got deposited.
Marc: Thanks to all the people who listened to me, talked to me, and put up with me. Without them I literally wouldn’t know who I am or if I exist. I also want to thank Sarah Cain. She’s a trouper. I love her.
Brendan: Thank you, Mike and Dorothy McDonald. My gratitude is the least I can give you in return for raising me so well. Thank you, Ian McDonald. You were the first person to teach me what was funny and why—a quality older-brother move. Thank you, Marc Maron. I have the career of my dreams because of your talent, your trust, and your friendship. Thank you, Owen McDonald. You are the greatest thing I ever produced. Thank you, Dawn McDonald. You are the reason I strive to be my best every day. I love you. Sorry I had to go away for days at a time to work on this book. I’ll be around more now.