“My job as an audiobook director is to assist actors in connecting themselves to the emotional consequences of the story—to the feelings and subtext, and give it back to us as the listeners.”

“When narrating audiobooks, you're reading, but the listener doesn't want to think you're reading. They want to believe that the action is happening right now, and they’re a part of it.”

“Actors cloak themselves with habits that they regard as technique. These things damage their emotional capacity to connect with the feelings in the story, and give that back truthfully.”

“I like to eliminate the nomenclature “actor” and substitute it with “replicator”. The actor is replicating real life to the degree that no one can tell.”

“The voice makes sound, but it cannot act. When an actor modulates their voice to affect character or emotion, it’s not believable. When the actor is deprived of using their voice in a performative way, they can connect emotionally to the feelings underneath the words, and then the story is real to us.”

“You can't act words. As a narrator, give yourself enough time to inhabit the feeling, and play the silent spaces in the story. That's where the drama is.”

“Audiobook listeners want to be ahead of the narrator. If they're led, then the actor is doing all the work for them. That removes them aesthetically and emotionally. The listener wants to anticipate what they don't know in real time.”

“If your outcome as a listener is to get it over with, play an audiobook at a faster speed. If you want to be connected to the story and feel something, listen at the original speed.”