Jonathan Ames

Author (Wake Up, Sir!: A Novel, What’s Not to Love?, The Extra Man) and monologist (Late Night with David Letterman)

Kurt Andersen

Host and co-creator of PRI's Studio 360 and author (Heyday, Turn of the Century)

Bob Balaban

Actor (A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show) and producer (Gosford Park)

William Baldwin

Actor (Dirty, Sex Money, Back Draft)

John Berendt

Author (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

Lewis Black

Comedian (Back in Black commentator on The Daily Show, Lewis Black: Black on Broadway)

Andy Borowitz

Creator (Fresh Prince of Bel Air), producer (Square Pegs, Facts of Life, Pleasantville) and humorist (The New Yorker, The Borowitz Report)

Jim Bouton

Former Major League pitcher (New York Yankees 1960-68), author (Ball Four) and co-inventor of Big League Chew bubble gum

Candace Bushnell

Author (Sex and the City, 4 Blondes) and columnist (New York Observer)

Roy Blunt, Jr.

Humorist and author (Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story, Roy Blunt's Book of Southern Humor) and contributing editor (The Atlantic Monthly)

Jim Carroll

Author (The Basketball Diaries), poet (Fear of Dreaming), and musician (The Jim Carroll Band)

Margaret Cho

Comedian (Notorious C.H.O, I'm the One That I Want) and actress (All-American Girl)

Cindy Chupack

Executive producer (Sex and the City), writer (Everybody Loves Raymond) and author (The Between Boyfriends Book)

Simon Doonan

Creative Director for Barneys New York, author (Confessions of a Window Dresser, Wacky Chicks, Nasty; My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints), and columnist (The New York Observer)

Dominick Dunne

Author (Justice: Crimes, Trials, Punishments, The Way We Lived Then) and contributing editor (Vanity Fair)

Neil Gaiman

Author (The Sandman, Anansi Boys, American Gods)

Janeane Garofalo

Comedian and actress (The Truth About Cats and Dogs, The West Wing, 24)

Teri Garr

Academy Award-nominated actress (Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

Malcolm Gladwell

Author (The Tipping Point, Blink) and staff writer for The New Yorker

Adam Gopnik

Author (Paris to the Moon, Through The Children's Gate) and staff writer for The New Yorker

Philip Gourevitch

Editor of The Paris Review, Award-winning author (We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda) and staff writer for The New Yorker

Spalding Gray

Obie Award-winning solo performer (Swimming to Cambodia) and actor (The Killing Fields)

Andre Gregory

Actor (My Dinner with Andre, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Mosquito Coast), and co-director (Vanya on 42nd Street)

Todd Hanson

Head writer (The Onion)

Ethan Hawke

Actor (Training Day, Before Sunrise, Dead Poets Society) and author (Ash Wednesday, The Hottest State)

Tony Hendra

Author (The Book of Bad Virtues, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul), editor (Brotherhood, The National Lampoon) and actor (This is Spinal Tap)

Buck Henry

Screenwriter (The Graduate, Catch-22), actor (Art) and director (Heaven Can Wait)

Starlee Kine

Public Radio producer (This American Life, Markerplace) and writer

Lewis Lapham

Editor (Harper's Magazine) and author (Lapham's Rules of Influence, Theater of War)

Doug Liman

Director (The Bourne Identity, Swingers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and producer (Arrested Development, The O.C.)

Joe Lockhart

Former White House Press Secretary

Leonard Lopate

Radio personality (The Leonard Lopate Show)

Joyce Maynard

Author (At Home In the World, To Die For, The Usual Rules, The Cloud Chamber)

Albert Maysles

Pioneering documentary filmmaker (Gimme Shelter, Salesman, Grey Gardens)

Frank McCourt

Pulitzer Prize-winning author (Angela's Ashes, 'Tis)

Darryl "DMC" McDaniels

One-third of the rap group Run-DMC

Writer, director, actor (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus)

Moby

Award-winning musician (Hotel, 18, Play, Everything is Wrong) and DJ

Mira Nair

Academy Award-nominated director (The Namesake, Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair)

Sheila Nevins

Executive Vice President of Original Programming at HBO

Drew Nieporent

Chef, restaurateur (Nobu, Tribeca Grill)

Rosie O'Donnell

Talk show host (The Rosie O'Donnell Show) and actress (A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle)

Susan Orlean

Author (The Orchid Thief, The Bullfighter Checks for Makeup) and staff writer for The New Yorker

George Plimpton

Co-founder and former editor of The Paris Review and author (Truman Capote: An Oral History, Paper Lion)

Richard Price

Author (Clockers, Bloodbrothers, Samaritan) and screenwriter (The Wire, Ransom, The Color of Money)

Colin Quinn

Comedian (Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Saturday Night Live)

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Caroline Rhea

Comedian, actress and talk show host (The Caroline Rhea Show)

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Jane Rosenthal

Co-founder of Tribeca Productions and producer (Cape Fear, A Bronx Tale, Wag the Dog, Analyze This, Meet the Parents, About a Boy)

Author (Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses)

Dan Savage

Sex Advice Columnist, author and journalist

Lauren Slater

Author (Prozac Diary, Welcome to My Country, Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir)

Andrew Solomon

Author (The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, A Stone Boat)

Jerry Stahl

Author (Permanent Midnight, Purv: A Love Story, Plainclothes Naked)

Julia Stiles

Actor (10 Things I Hate About You, Bourne Identity, Save the Last Dance)

Gay Talese

Author (A Writer’s Life, The Kingdom and The Power)

Lili Taylor

Actor (Six Feet Under, I Shot Andy Warhol, Say Anything)

Suzanne Vega

Musician (Songs in Red and Gray, Solitude Standing) and author (The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega)