Craig Mazin

I am eternally impressed and amazed by what directors do. ”

I've always had this fascination with the brain. I'm not really much of a religious person, but like anybody, you are at least fascinated by what some call a soul - what I would call the brain - and who we are and how we work. ”

If you organize your life around some political party's list of things you should believe, or an individual that you think is going to come and save you, you are disconnecting yourself from truth. And there is a price to pay. ”

Being a screenwriter for a comedy, you're writing for characters in them in their voice. I could write anyone. ”

For me, I've been doing comedy for a long time, and I love it and have no regrets, but 'Chernobyl' expresses a side of me that is far more true to who I am on a day to day basis. ”

In my opinion, where comedy sequels tend to go bad is that they get sillier and lighter. ”

Comedy, unlike drama, demands surprise. You can't quietly and thoughtfully enjoy a comedy. ”

Comedians who aren't screenwriters are telling jokes that they themselves think are funny. They're expressing their own view of what they think funny is. ”

At some point, and maybe it's a function of age, you've had enough of it. You start to slide in other directions. A lot of comedy writers begin to turn the dial. With me, it was a switch. Comedy off. Drama on. ”

I'm a big believer in comedy writers. I've always defended the honor of all comedy writers. It's extremely difficult, but I've always felt that comedy writers far more easily can move toward drama than vice versa. ”