Quote

I love the idea of the amateur - that's what popular culture is all about. But what the Internet's doing is professionalizing everyone's amateuristic impulses.

There is no line of demarcation between the amateurs and the pros; everyone is using the same tactics and playing in the same arenas. The only thing that separates them is radio, but the artist doesn't control who goes to radio and who doesn't.

Radio for years and years looked at the same pool of talent. I always believed there were other people in the world that could do radio shows.

I was planning to remain an amateur for a while.

There's a great thing about amateur sport: it is purer. And the athletes are not open to so much pressure with amateur sport.

Every artist was first an amateur.

Part of the success of This American Life, I think, is due to the fact that none of us sound like we should be on the radio. We don't sound professional; we sound like people you would know.

I can fairly be called an amateur because I do what I do, in the original sense of the word - for love, because I love it. On the other hand, I think that those of us who make our living writing history can also be called true professionals.

I didn't even know about amateur boxing, period.

The amateur is very rare in French literature - as rare as he is common in our own.