“I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure its working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity.”

It was a mixed blessing to have famous parents. It was tough to go to auditions and be bad, since I couldn’t be anonymous.

My parents used to throw great New Year’s Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment.

It was Mick Jagger’s idea.The other one was Simple Plan, based on a novel by Scott Smith. It’s a great book – really stark, not a comedy – about a guy who finds $4 million in a plane crash and decides to keep it.

I don’t have a burning desire to be taken seriously as an actor. I don’t have a master plan in that way.

If you look at my eyes when I’m dancing, you’ll see that glazed look.

There’s an old saying in Hollywood: It’s not the length of your film, it’s how you use it.

The big-name stars . . . are always going to be playing what they’ve played before if they want to remain so-called A-list stars. That’s why someone like Johnny Depp is doing more interesting roles not caring about the size of the movie.

I wanted to be funny for people who didn’t care about fashion at all, to just to kind of exist as a silly character.

I love New York. I was sad, depressed and incredibly moved by our fellow countrymen and what they’ve done. I wanted to give people a chance to see something funny, have a distraction.

Whatever talent I had, I’m sure it helped that my parents were in the business and that I grew up around actors, comedians and directors.

When you have kids you want to be able to go to movies and take the family too, and actually all enjoy it together. I don’t think there are that many great, live action family movies that everybody can enjoy.

Zoolander was more of my own sensibility.

The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again.

I don’t need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines !

It’s weird that people expect me to be funny. I find it a real burden when I’m expected to be humorous on talk shows.

When I was growing up, This is Spinal Tap [1984] was the ultimate comedy, and it was the kind of thing I wanted to do. But you get to a point with parody where you can’t go much further because ultimately it’s feeding off of somebody else’s creativity.