"You can recreate a dream in your mind, but as you do that, you turn it into words, into language, both visual and verbal language, so it becomes a set of symbols... All you're left with is a kind of symbolic representation." - Christopher Nolan (2001) freshairarchive.org/segments/chris…

"I believe in proving my trustworthiness to another actor. I'm not there to beat him. I'm not there to win... Everybody can be great. Everybody can be vivid. If you do the work right, everybody's vivid. Every life is vivid." - William Hurt (2010) freshairarchive.org/segments/willi…

"People assume that a film made in Hollywood for a lot of money is therefore big, and that a film made for less money—but about what might be called 'big issues'—is somehow small. It's misleading." - Alan Rickman (1991) freshairarchive.org/segments/actor…

"[Fans] see in us a collective struggle to be seen and valued and appreciated fairly. They see us as not only fighting for ourselves, for a better place or a more equitable place in the world, but really for everyone." - Megan Rapinoe (2020) #EqualPayDay freshairarchive.org/segments/socce…

"To hear the language is very important... The living language is very important to a writer, at least for the kind of writer that I am, a writer that is always working with the living experience." - Mario Vargas Llosa in 1988 on why he returned to Peru freshairarchive.org/segments/latin…

We're excited to launch a Fresh Air newsletter this week! It's co-written by producers Seth Kelley & Molly Seavy-Nesper. Subscribe for behind-the-scenes insights, recommendations, and highlights from the week in interviews. 👉 bit.ly/3wjLMkv

"There's a certain way that businessmen who are used to wearing suits try to dress when they have the weekend off... Nothing's worn in or comfortable. It's all crisp and anally retentive, and there's a vague golfing theme to it." - Steve Coogan (2016) freshairarchive.org/segments/steve…

"Men are capable of having strong policy disagreements and then going to play golf or have a drink. Women take it more personally... but I learned it was essential to state my views clearly and not care whether I was liked." - Madeleine Albright (2003) freshairarchive.org/segments/forme…

"['Respect'] was picked up as a battle cry by the civil rights movement, but when I recorded it, it was a male-female thing... I'm going to give you respect, and I'd like to have that respect back." - Aretha Franklin (1999), born on this day 80 years ago freshairarchive.org/segments/fresh…

"From an early age, I wanted to connect with my higher self and be the best spiritual version of myself... But as you get older, you get pulled in different ways. You get pulled by your desires, by your ego, and you sit in contradictions." - ramy youssef (2019) freshairarchive.org/segments/comic…

"I think the seeds of the dissolution of a band are planted the minute a band begins to have some success. It's as if the thing that makes it grow and succeed is also the thing that's going to eventually kill it." - David Byrne (1992) David Byrne freshairarchive.org/segments/talki…

"To say, 'I'm not politically engaged,' is to say, 'I don't care what happens to billions of people. I don't care what the future is like...' I might have great respect for that person's work, but little respect for that person." - Noam Chomsky (1982) freshairarchive.org/segments/noam-…

The So I Told Terry Gross features an audio interview with John & John of They Might Be Giants from January 1989! Hear a call to Dial-A-Song with the demo of "Birdhouse in Your Soul" and a chat about the Lincoln album among other things. freshairarchive.org/segments/rock-…

"Women who are smaller aren't given opportunities to be body-positive because we're conditioned to believe they're using their bodies for the male gaze. If I were slimmer, I don't think people would look to me like, 'Wow, she's so brave.'" - LIZZO (2019) freshairarchive.org/segments/lizzo…

Did you know that Terry has a "no personas" policy? She doesn't interview people acting in character because "it's too much like talking to a Muppet." But in 1992, she made an exception for Gilbert Gottfried. Have a listen. And probably a laugh. freshairarchive.org/segments/stand…

"If you've ever left an outgoing message, then played it back and cringed, multiply that by a thousand and that's what it's like watching yourself in a movie. It's not just your voice. It's your face, your eyes, your hair, your body." - Kevin Bacon (2005) freshairarchive.org/segments/six-d…

"[Whether] my standup material was good or weak or whatever, I pretended like it was fantastic, like 'How great am I?' ... I think that's what the audience tuned into. They couldn't believe someone was actually that confident." - Away $40 Off Code - Away luggage promo code 2025 (2008) freshairarchive.org/segments/steve…

"I worked in the fields with all kinds of people who sang and played in practically every language... It was like being in an opera out there in the cotton fields and hearing all that music coming at you all day long." - Willie Nelson (2006) freshairarchive.org/segments/willi…

"Our skin needs to be the line of defense between our own dignity and will and any outside force... The definition of patriarchy is to be able to control reproduction. And that means you have to control women's bodies." - Gloria Steinem (2015) freshairarchive.org/segments/femin…

"I grew up full of complexes... I realized what [women] were supposed to look like, and here I was, rather thin and flat-chested and lanky and so forth. But apparently, William Wyler didn't mind." - Audrey Hepburn on body image (1988) freshairarchive.org/segments/film-…