Women are often pushed into the idea that they write softer, more character-driven jokes.

I looked back at some high school journals and discovered that I definitely wanted to be a writer, but not necessarily comedy.

Writing is just my first love. And I still have some issues with telling people what to do.

I actually write some pretty tough jokes. I don't want to push the "soft" angle too much.

I remember one guy saying, "You're the only human out of all of them," and feeling a little concerned that somehow that meant I wasn't as funny.

I did improv at Yale, with the Exit Players. It was great, but they played a little rough.

I've met a surprising number of comedy writers whose parents are scientists. Both have an antiauthoritarian slant - they're both skeptics.

I do love science. My father is a scientist.

In high school, I was performing "forensics." You take a section of a play and portray all the characters. I even went to camp for forensics.

God, nevertheless, required a little help from men, and what he mostly got was hindrance.

Somewhere along the way, during this hunt for Glendower, he'd forgotten to notice how much magic there was in the world. How much magic that wasn't just buried in a tomb. He was feeling it now.

My motto: 'No good movie is depressing. All bad movies are depressing.'

I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

The burning embers within me burst into flame / My body becomes a fire-lit torch. / Ho someone! Send for the mid-wife.

The shock, for an intelligent writer, of discovering for the first time that there are people younger than himself who think him stupid is severe.

Indignation and compassion form a powerful combination. They are indispensable to vision, and therefore to leadership.

I love doing things that people don't expect.

These days in particular it seems not only unavoidable but even irresponsible to not acknowledge politics in some way.

It certainly has not been in my self-interest to defend men.