Most people presume my mustache is not real because it's much darker than my regular hair. John Hodgman More Quotes by John Hodgman More Quotes From John Hodgman I'm an older, wall-eyed, overweight, tweedy writer who has been lucky enough to be asked to play various iterations of himself in a certain realm of popular cultutre. That gives me great joy and excitement, but I don't go to the media saying, "And I'm also the world's greatest actor." John Hodgman wall media play The very idea that there is no truth, but only the filter of narrative through which truth is invented is something I learned at the feet of the most leftist professors at Yale and am learning again from Sarah Palin during the Vice Presidential debate, and I find that very disorienting. John Hodgman yale feet ideas I am someone who values truth - actual truth as opposed to "truthiness." I am also someone who has been trained in deconstruction in the literary theory department of Yale University, so I am someone who is tempted to believe that no absolute truth is possible. John Hodgman literary-theory yale believe I am someone who values knowledge, actual knowledge. I also value stories and fiction a whole lot, and that's where the fake knowledge comes in. John Hodgman fake stories fiction I was always fascinated with the way that things pop on the Internet - the ways you build communities and create little stories and ideas that people play around with and send back to you. John Hodgman play people ideas I am not an Internet superstar. I am, ironically perhaps, the most old media superstar of all time. My fame is due to broadcast television. John Hodgman superstar media television To want to become the President is, I think, such a bizarre ambition that it is automatically deranging. John Hodgman ambition president thinking My hope when I wrote the first book was that I would get to do it again. But it was not entirely clear that that would happen. John Hodgman clear book firsts I think that by the time I start writing the third book, of course, I will be President Of The United States, and that also will have something to do with it. I'll probably have to acknowledge that somehow. John Hodgman writing book thinking It was inevitable that in the proliferation of media and media channels and the natural debasing of authority that comes when you make an expert of someone who knows a few things and can be on television and you put the word "expert" underneath them, that is to say me, then eventually the very concept of expertise itself would become meaningless. John Hodgman media experts television The reality is that there is an enormous value to gut-check instinctive decision-making in the world that is not hampered by reams and reams of research and complexity. John Hodgman research decision reality The reality is that if you want to be in a reality-based community, you've got to respect reality and that means calling it bad when you see the past ahead and it doesn't look good and acknowledging when it's going to work. John Hodgman mean reality past My candidacy is a compelling argument for my candidacy. I want to be President. John Hodgman argument president want From a very selfish point of view, I'm enchanted by the idea that a politician can come along and speak simply and clearly and truthfully to an electorate as though they are grown-ups and to feel the electorate respond to that. John Hodgman selfish views ideas Borges was unapologetically smart and equally sentimental; a proto-geek, blind to distinctions between low pulp fiction and high criticism, experimental but never arch, and always playful, with a humor as dry as dust. John Hodgman smart dust criticism I suspect that when the truth ceases to be heartbreakingly funny, we will be in a better place and a happier society over all. John Hodgman suspects cease better-place There is a need for expertise, for real expertise. I'm not doing much to help that cause, but I think we can find the healthy balance between intellectualism and anti-intellectualism. Jocks and nerds may come together, I believe it. John Hodgman real believe thinking Just because you see an iceberg does not mean that there isn't global warming. John Hodgman global-warming doe mean I realized that even in a world of proliferating media venues, online and in print, and on TV and on countless cable channels, the idea that I could be considered an expert on chronic knee pain was I think troubling for society, but very exciting for me. John Hodgman pain ideas thinking Just a small-scale cult of personality, maybe raise a geodetic dome out in western Massachusetts and make people wear jumpsuits and give all their possessions to me. John Hodgman cult-of-personality giving people