The Chosen,' if you recall, was based on the Chaim Potok novel and featured Robbie Benson's persuasive performance as a Hasidic Jew.

Although I'm not an orphan and I can't lift a horse. I was, however, briefly famous for my feats of strength: at about age 11, I could competitively arm-wrestle a full-grown man.

There's no reason why a writer shouldn't explore and use different genres.

Six years after I wrote the first draft of 'Plan B,' I received my first paycheck as a writer. It included both the $3,000 in deferred option money as well as half the fee for performing the initial rewrite. The amount was scale according to the Writer's Guild guidelines, but a lot, according to me.

So much of male heterosexual comedy can be steeped in a gay panic. A lot of juvenile comedy is predicated on that.

Probably it is impossible for humor to be ever a revolutionary weapon. Candide can do little more than generate irony.

I used comedy to deflect a lot of situations; if you make someone laugh, they don't want to punch you in the face.

Comedy is the most difficult. Comic timing is something which you either have it in you, or you don't. You have to have a good sense of humour to be able to understand it. A split second can make you lose the punch.