Tweeting is the go-to medium for the show-off and the shyster.

A decent beard has long been the number one must-have fashion item for any fugitive from justice.

You might think that religion was the one area in which professional jealousy would take a back seat. But no: ecclesiastical memoirs are as viperish as any, though their envy tends to cloak itself in piety.

Somewhere in the back of their minds, hosts and guests alike know that the dinner party is a source of untold irritation, and that even the dullest evening spent watching television is preferable.

If you think of the people who are funny in your life, you'll note it's not because they tell jokes, it's because of their character. If you develop characters, then you'll know them, and you'll know how they'll speak. The comedy will come out of the character.

Stuff that I write isn't as similar to the stuff that I'm in, but I don't really care. I just do comedy.

You have to have a sense of humor about all of it - the Emmys and politics and everything.

If I had grown up in London, I wouldn't have been as keen to become a comedian or a writer. I'd have been able to see a lot of good films and music and comedy. I'd have been distracted. As it was, I had to make it.