“It’s fun to discover things. I wouldn’t want everything laid out, simply and too obviously.”

The Senate being tied is a start. Now, if only it could be gagged.

Being comedic is a skill, because there is a fine line where the context is important. And being dramatic is just being honest and real in that moment.

You get to use everything you learned in movie business. You talk to actors, if you do it right – and I haven’t always done it right – you should be shaping the material all the time.

I’m always an entrepreneur, but I’d probably be a teacher. I like teaching kids, whether that’s tennis on the courts or history in the classroom.

Emotions weren’t created to just lie around. You should experience things to the full. I’ve got a sense of the clock ticking.

When you’re 20 you can put a ton of old-age prosthetics on and be an old guy, but when you’re 70 you can’t play a 20-year-old.

I was at the vice president’s Christmas party. I thought that his speech was spectacular, and I knew that it was a very emotional and difficult thing for him to do, but I admonished him for not waiting just one more stinking day.

When they’re doing a stupid role in a bad production, it’s kind of a dumb thing to do when you’re an adult. When you’re doing a great role that’s well-written, it’s an enviable job.

I’m about to go to Sundance for my 3rd year, and Sundance has never felt like a real independent festival at all. On the other hand, it might to start feel that way.

If you surround me with darkness, suddenly, I am “somewhat fun.”

I think independent movies are actually very challenging right now, because it was this huge scene and it was great for a few years. Then, it was totally co-opted by the studios. Now, it’s become very corporate, the independent scene.

Comedy is tragedy plus timing.

We don’t feel constrained by what we did in the past.

When you envy actors, only envy them for their good roles. Keep in mind they have to do a lot of roles to make a living, and not all of them are good.

In the end, the thing that really stays with you is not that you were clever enough to connect a sketch to another sketch, but what really sticks with you is when you just have an incredible moment happen, or execute a really funny idea.

I pretty much read reviews and comments only looking for the negative. Literally, when I read positive comments, it’s like a zero. I think the issue is if you agree with it or not.

I know now that everything I write, I’m going to put out, and I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life.

They do everything from gangsta rap to polka music and every genre in between. It’s amazing.

I would come home and she would tell me about her life that day and all her problems and I remember saying to her, look, you really got me through this picture because I would shed everything when I came home.

Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.

The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody’s house.

Everything changes with age. The parts change with age, your feelings about them change, roles that I would’ve wanted to play 10 years ago, I don’t want to play now.

So I’ve been doing everything that has to do with being next to them, close to them.

I picked the wrong movie, or I didn’t pursue a character, but everything you do is part of you and you get something from it.