I survived many a youth hostel bunk room reading Tolstoy by flashlight.

It was important for me early on to find the voice of each character and figure out what was unique about them and their individual worldview that I could use for comedy or conflict.

I naively thought I would quit television writing, move up to Seattle, my novel would come out, and then I'd have a novel writing career, and so I found myself really stuck in this very poisonous self-pitying state and felt like I'd never write again. And I blamed Seattle for that.

My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world. I always had a mind for characters and dialogue, and my head was filled with that stuff, so it seemed like a good place to start.

I adore doing comedy, I think it's fantastic. I never saw myself doing exclusively comedy.

If you're able to put humor into something, just like it happens in life, you might get away with it.

One day, my brother had his friend over, and they were in the laundry room, and I stuck my puppet's head around the door and then started chasing them with it and made my puppet laugh very scary. It was really funny.

I don't think I would describe my sense of humor. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd do.