“I think American culture had just become so disengaged from the process of government, and we’d been so fuzzed out by our pop culture around us, that I don’t think people really saw this guy for what he was.”

For my money, I don’t think there’s been a better comedy than ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ in a lot of years. That movie just knocked me over.

I have certain beliefs about how people should treat employees and how companies should be run, but I was really surprised though this process to learn that those beliefs are actually good business.

I got the sense that Alabama is a place where people don’t want handouts and don’t much care for people talking out of the side of their mouth.

It’s one thing to mess stuff up and break stuff, but [Borat] is really pointing out the ideology of America.

Old man with an old phone. That’s never not funny.

It’s crazy, but even at funerals, people will get huge laughs.

I grew up with a single mom who was a waitress. We were on food stamps.

We punch mirrors and we explore our darker selves. No, it’s just an amalgam of all newscasters that we grew up with. Sort of like before there was cable, when these people were like gods.

David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He’s not only a great director, but he’s also a great writer.

I’m just a giant film fan, so I love action movies out of all kinds of movies. As a film geek, it’s amazing to be able to shoot this stuff.

As for movies, what’s great about comedy is that if your movie gets laughs and makes money, you have freedom.

I always give myself a little part in every movie.

We get so much information during the day that doesn’t really tell us anything.

There’s a lot of things you can’t control. But you can always be a pro.

I would never call myself cultural elite, but you might be cultural elite.

The one thing for sure is, I don’t ever want to waste a movie. I don’t ever want to waste effort.

Don’t tire yourself more than need be, even at the price of founding a culture on the fatigue of your bones.

Battle rap is a culture. That’s boxing, it’s like boxing.

As film-makers, it is very important for us to find common ground between cultures, and maybe that’s less the case for politicians who benefit more from finding the conflicts and differences between us.

Film is very much a universal and common voice, and we can’t limit it to one particular culture.

The Civic Culture (and The Civic Culture Revisited) remains the best study of comparative political culture in our time.

The experience of being on a show that is very much in the center of popular culture is exciting. You really feel like you’re reaching people.

The great joy of doing ‘The Daily Show’ for me is that I get to sit on the fence between cultures. I am commenting on the absurdity of both sides as an outsider and insider. Sometimes I’m playing the brown guy, and sometimes I’m not, but the best stuff I do always goes back to being a brown kid in a white world.

Sex is perhaps like culture – a luxury that only becomes an art after generations of leisurely acquaintance. Why we scarcely approach either as individuals – it’s mass propulsion still!