Mythologies become exhausting burdens, from a writer's perspective.

It's hard asking someone with a broken heart to fall in love again.

People love a good mystery; I understand that.

Every so often, you want to map out your plot mythology but never so specifically that you can't let a story surprise you. You want to allow the type of action of the writer's room so that you have the ability to take a left turn.

I owe my success to my two families. If my father hadn't been willing to make sacrifices for me, I would have never won the role on 'Everybody Hates Chris'. I like working with my television family, too. We have a lot of love for each other.

Like lots of baby boomers, I was brought up on archaic anthropomorphism. Upstanding Christian dogs. Rabbits with family values. Because the ancient texts and pictures were sacred - Potter, Milne and the rest. Even concerned parents who knew Freud and Jung never saw the contradictions in feeding us on them.

I think that 'Family Guy' is hysterical. It's edgy and hip - and they can do whatever they want to do because it's animated and they're not limited by budget.

A simple summary of my life is that my parents worked very hard so that I could have a great education, and I took that education and worked very hard to get where I am. I would like my kids' lives to be exactly the same.