conan o'brien gives great life advice

From Lynn Hirschberg's fantastic New York Times Magazine profile, Conan O'Brien talks about the pressure to compete with Jay Leno and the weight of expectations as the new host of The Tonight Show:

“When I can’t sleep and it’s 3 in the morning, I’m not thinking about Jay. I’m thinking about all the things I want to do on the show. And I’m not thinking about how I’m going to change myself to fit a certain demographic. I just have to block that nonsense out. In entertainment, you have to stake out what you think is right, you have to put out that signal, make sure it’s pure and then do it and do it and do it and know that they will come. And if they don’t, you have to pack up your bags and say: ‘I enjoyed my time here. Sorry it didn’t work out.’ But the biggest mistake would be to alter my signal to make sure that I reach all these different people. Because then you’re lost.”

What comes through loud and clear in Hirschberg's piece is that O'Brien is just a great, genuine guy. I hope he kills in his new gig, even though he'll be running head-to-head with my beloved David Letterman.