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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
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My Hope When I

John Hodgman
...
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.

Understanding the Quote: "my hope when i wrote the first book was that i would..."

This quote by John Hodgman reflects deeply on the theme of book. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Book, Firsts, Clear, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how John Hodgman interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About John Hodgman

John Hodgman is celebrated for insightful thoughts on book and firsts. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Book
Firsts
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Satan
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I Have No Skills. I Mean, I Can Make Jokes, I'm Pretty Good At Talking To People On The Judge John Hodgman Podcast. I Can Figure Out What Makes A Pretty Good Story, And I Can Make Eggs Really Well.
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I Believe That The Federal Government Should Be Laying Down Broadband Like Eisenhower Laid Down Interstates.
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Laying Down
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.
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Ideas
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Lies Are Just Another Kind Of Storytelling, But With The Very Distinct And Enlivening Motive Of Desperation. Since Writers Are By Nature Desperate Creatures, They Usually Do A Pretty Good (or Pretty Awful, But Always Interesting) Job Of Lying.
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Lying
Interesting
Why Certain Political Classes Want Purposefully To Keep Americans In A State Of Perpetual Debt And Uncertainty And Why Certain People Don't Want A Middle Class - Because Middle Class Creates A Certain Happiness. You Know What I Mean?
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Once You're Out In A Place Where There's One Sheriff For The County, People Have To Learn How To Get Along With Each Other And That Means Going To The Dump Illegally And Dumping Your Garbage And Hoping The Guys Don't Call You On It And Being Terrified Of This To Your Core Until You Realize After Many Years That The Guys At The Dump Don't Really Care Where Your Garbage Is Coming From.
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Years
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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.
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Television
Superstar
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.
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Fiction
Stories
I'm Not A Particularly Religious Person, But That Feeling Of Getting Transmissions From Someplace Else, Even If It's From Your Own Consciousness, Is Very, Very Real. To Me, At Least.
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War
Needs
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Enjoy
Copies
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Literature
Burden
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Good Friend
Giving
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House
Gone
I Have An Unfortunate Compulsion. I Really Would Rather Not Do It, As It Is Very Nerve-wracking And Un-fun. But When It Works, There Is Nothing Like It.
Fun
Nerves
Compulsion
Hosting A Tv Show Is A Full-time Job In Which Success Is Defined By It Never Ending.
Jobs
Tv Shows
Tvs
I Actually Own A Copy Of My Own Book; That's How Dedicated I Am As An Author.
Book
Dedicated
Copies
I Never Stopped Feeling Abject Terror Until I Got On Television And Went On A National Ad Campaign And Realized, "i Will Be Able To Feed My Children. I Have Somehow Averted The Destiny That Awaited Me, Which Is Endless, Crippling Debt Forever."
Children
Destiny
Forever
Creating Fake Facts Does Require A Measure Of Haphazard Research, Insofar As They Need To Not Just Be Possible, But Also Interesting.
Creating
Interesting
Fake
The Villain Of Any Story Is Often The Most Compelling Character.
Character
Stories
Villain
I Still Have A Fondness For Books. Many A Time I Will Be Antiquing, And I'll Say, 'what's That Old-timey Curio Over There? What Is That, A Candlestick Telephone, One Of Those Old Pull-chain Toilets? Oh No, It's A Book. I Used To Help Make Those Things! I Will Buy It And Use It To Decorate My Chain Of Casual Family-dining Restaurants.
Book
Dining
Use
My Biggest Superhero Of Writing Is Jorge Luis Borges, The Argentine Fabulist. He's An Amazingly Perceptive Writer, But Also Willing To Make A Joke.
Writing
Superhero
Borges
I Am Not Beautiful, So I Don't Know Why I'm Making Myself Ugly. But The Mustache Stays.
Beautiful
Mustache
Ugly
I Am Someone Who Values Truth - Actual Truth As Opposed To 'truthiness.'
Values
When You're Sitting Down And You're Blocked And You Just Start Writing And Something In Your Mind Just Clicks, You Start Seeing Connections And So On, You Really Do Feel Like You're Channeling Something Else.
Writing
Mind
Sitting Down
People Like What They Like. They're Gonna Do What They're Gonna Do.
People
As A Freelance Writer, I'd Be Asked To Become An Expert For Various Magazines On Any Subject, Whether Food Or Wine Or History Or The Life Span Of Veterinarians. I Was Completely Unschooled In Any Of These Things.
Wine
Experts
Magazines
Reality, While Generally Probable, Is Not Always Interesting.
Reality
Interesting
I'm A Personality - Like A George Plimpton Who Effectively Plays Himself In A Bunch Of Different Roles, Or A Paul Lynde-type Character.
Character
Play
Personality
All Books Should Be Trilogies; I Mean I Think We All Agree On That.
Book
Mean
Thinking
Tonally, There Was No Discussion; I Just Don’t Know Any Other Way To Do It. I Don’t Want To Make People Feel Bad, And I Don’t Want To Make Their Problems Into A Joke. I Do Love Telling People When They’re Right And Wrong, But For The Most Part, It Was Always Going To Be About Real Fights Where People Have A Real Difference Of Opinion And A Real Dispute. I Want To Make Jokes, But I Also Want To Make A Decision That Is Fair.
Real
Fighting
Differences
My Career As A Magazine Writer Was Largely Prefaced On The Idea Of Curiosity, To Go On Adventures And Weasel My Way Into The Lives Of People That I Admire.
Adventure
Careers
Ideas
People Who Run For President Seriously And People Who Become President Enter A Bizarre Secret Society In Which They Have Had An Experience That None Of Us Will Ever Have.
Running
People
Secret
Everyone Feels Like They Would Love To Be A Really Cool Bartender In A Really Cool Bar, But You're Still Surrounded By People Who Want To Destroy Themselves With Alcohol. When You Look At It That Way, It's Not That Much Fun.
Fun
People
Alcohol
I Had Some Very, Very Fond Memories Of The People I Worked With And The Authors I Worked With - And I Won't Mention Any Names - But As I Have Been Traveling Through Rural Maine Over The Past Few Weeks, One Of My Favorite Things To Do Is To Go Into Bookstores On The Side Of Rural Routes And Paw Through The Old Copies Of Tom Clancy And Trevanian Books They Have In There For Weird Old 1970s Thrillers That I Haven't Read Yet.
Memories
Book
Past
What I Collect? Interesting Jobs. Always To My Thrill And Excitement, But Ultimately To My Exhaustion, I Collect Interesting Jobs. If An Interesting Job Comes Along, I Take It; That's Why I Do So Many Things. I'm Lucky To Be Able To.
Jobs
Interesting
Lucky
I Really Wouldn't Censor Myself. But Because It Was On Such A Slower Scale, I Would Throw Things Out, And I Indulged The Personal Stuff As Little Flashes Of Truth. Little In-jokes For Anyone Who Was Paying Particular Attention.
Attention
Littles
Stuff
I Don't Wish To Brag, But I'm Very Intelligent.
Intelligent
Wish
Brag
I've Made My Evolutionary Purpose And Had Children. I Don't Care If Anybody Likes Me, I'm Going To Do What I Want To Do. I'm Going To Do A Whole Comedy Show About Swimming In The Loathsomely Cold Waters Of Maine.
Children
Swimming
Water
For A Long Time, I Would Write Without Music, Because I Thought It Was Distracting Until I Appreciated That It Actually Unlocks A Certain Unconscious Productivity Vault In My Mind.
Writing
Long
Mind
What Would I Put In A Museum? Probably A Museum! That's An Amusing Relic Of Our Past.
Past
Museums
Amusing
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.
Selfish
Views
Ideas
Terry Gross Has Never Had Me On Her Show And You Know, It's Her Show; She Sets The Agenda And That's Not Hodgman. But I'll Still Listen To It.
Agendas
Gross
Shows
Terry Gross. I Would Rush Home From High School To Listen To Terry Gross.
Home
School
High School
The Only Time I've Ever Been Mistaken For Someone Else Is - And This Arguable Still - When A Person Came Up To Me On The Boardwalk Of Ocean City, New Jersey And Said, "you Look A Lot Like That Guy From Computer Ads" And I Said, "there Is A Reason Because I Am That Guy," And The Guy Looked At Me For A Minute, Laughed And Said, "that's A Funny Joke, But You Really Do Look Like Him." He Thought I Was Not Me.
Ocean
Cities
Guy
I Have Learned That Newborn Infants Roll Their Eyes Around And Move Their Heads And Their Arms In Short Jerky Spasms. And If You Homeschool Them, They Will Stay This Way Forever.
Moving
Eye
Forever
When I Listen To Music - I Don't Particularly Do It For Fun All That Much. It's Not A Big Part Of My Life, And I'm Not Really On Top Of What's Happening In The World Of Music In The Way I Was When I Was A Teenager.
Fun
Teenager
World
I Know Nothing About Letting Go.
Letting Go
Knows
Unfortunately For Humanity, I've Gotten Into The Habit Of Providing My Own Closing Music For Shows By Singing A Song And Playing The Ukulele.
Song
Ukulele
Humanity
Truth May Be Stranger Than Fiction, Goes The Old Saw, But It Is Never As Strange As Lies.
Inspirational
Lying
Fiction
First Of All, I Wish I Could Grow A Beard.
Wish
Beard
Firsts
So Much Of Creativity Is The Feeling That You're Either Getting A Gift From Some Other Dimension Or Some Other Part Of Yourself.
Creativity
Feelings
Dimensions
Most People Presume My Mustache Is Not Real Because It's Much Darker Than My Regular Hair.
Real
Hair
People
I Would Say 70 Percent Of People Who Are In Therapy Are In Therapy Not Because Of Their Upbringing, Not Because Of Their Mean Sister Or Obsessions, But Because Of Anxiety Brought About By Lack Of Financial Security.
Mean
People
Anxiety
Generally Speaking, I Think It Is Fair To Say That I Am A Friend To The Creatures Of The Earth When I Am Not Busy Eating Them Or Wearing Them.
Thinking
Earth
Busy
A Lot Of Media That That I Want To Consume, I Don't Want To Have To Own Forever And Ever. It's Not Like Real Estate.
Real
Media
Forever
Part Of The Transaction Between Writer And Reader Is The Pleasure Of Building A Community And Encouraging People To Play Along.
Play
People
Community
The Few People Who Ask To Have Their Photographs With Me, I Almost Always Say Yes, Except For A Few Circumstances, Like When My Family Is Around.
People
My Family
Photograph
Here's The Thing: I Am Not Only A Creature Of Civilization, I'm An Asthmatic Person. I Will Only Live So Long As I Have Stockpiled The Proper Inhalers. I'm Effectively A Cyborg. You Know How In Jurassic Park, They Bred Those Dinosaurs With The Lysine Deficiencies, So If They Ever Got Off The Island, They'd Die? That's Me.
Islands
Civilization
Long
Everything We Make In Life, Eventually, Is Sold For A Dollar Or A Penny Or Given Away.
Dollars
Pennies
Given
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