Over the course of 2010, we covered an array of politicians, authors, entertainers, media mavens, and others as they discussed their crafts and their industries. We enjoyed most of the panels, lectures, and debates we took in, while some of them fell short. Here, a rundown of our 5 favorites, followed by the 10 quotes that defined the year in New York City media panels:

This past weekend, Mediaite contributor Jasmine Moy took in the New Yorker Festival, one of the city’s hottest cultural tickets every fall, usually featuring very smart people sitting in chairs on stage, talking thoughtfully about smart things, for longer than five minutes and without interruption. Why is there so little of that on the telly? It even had its share of naughtiness: “They were small breasts, in keeping with the understated nature of the magazine.” If you want to find out the context for that remark, you’ll have to read on.

Who: Steve Carell, interviewed by Tad Friend
What: The New Yorker Festival’s “Steve Carell talks with Tad Friend (that’s what he said)”
Where: Acura at SIR Stage37
When: October 3, 2010
Thumbs: Up

You’ve got to hand it to Gawker for turning the process of writing blog posts into fun and profit for all. They’ve complained in the past that the photo of Finke to the left is the only one available on the Web. Rather than resign themselves to that fact, they’ve made a contest of it: the first person to bring them a recent photo of Nikki Finke wins $1000.