“It’s great to work with the people who make you laugh and who are funnier than I am.”

When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic. I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?

I think the most serious genre is the thing you’re going to get the most out of. If you’re trying to satirise a comedy, it’s hard to do that – it doesn’t really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I’m a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is.

I’m just not a naturally cheery person. I’m naturally moody. I know that from people who spend a lot of time with me. People who spend a lot of time with me may not wish to spend a lot more time with me.

You’re freaked out that you’re going to be having a child, and once you’re looking after your daughter, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.

You have to stay in character in between takes.

I was staying on [writer/director/actor] Eric Schaeffer’s couch in New York, and he said, “I’ve got this movie [If Lucy Fell]. Can you do five days on it?”

I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.

Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.

And I was like, “Yeah, anything. Twenty-four hours times five is 120 hours. Oh, great, I’ll fill 120 hours of my life with something.” So I did that and it was fun, and then I did Flirting with Disaster.

I don’t think know if anything’s going to translate anywhere. You’re making a movie, you hope it’s going to be funny, you can’t think about how it’s going to go over.

Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!

I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.

Maybe forced retirement isn’t necessary after all.

I studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission Impossibles. I think he’s one of the best screen runners.

The cliches are that it’s the most generic Starsky and Hutch plot you can find.

My own parents were touchy-feely.

There’s a difference between a sense of humor and a sense of funny. A sense of humor is knowing what makes you laugh and a sense of funny is knowing what makes other people laugh. The journey of comedy, in a sense, is negotiating those two worlds.

There is something about being a director where, for me personally, I get to . . . it’s the closest I’ll ever come to being able to be a stand up.

I was born with a priceless gift, the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others.

Every laugh is not equal. They come from different places. That’s sort of the challenge I go towards, making sure the laughs are for the reasons I want. It becomes a back and forth dance with the audience.

The most exciting thing I aspire to do is to write something new that I know is going to work, or perform something that I know is going to make people laugh.

A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better.

When you’re a young comedian the first thing you want to do is get a laugh.

They want to let the audience figure things out and let the reaction shot get the laugh.