I'd tell my teenage self he did the right thing never getting a proper job.

Oh God, I've done telesales. It doesn't get much lower than that, really. That's the job I enjoyed the least.

I always come back to the gentler stuff like Simon & Garfunkel and the Fleet Foxes' first album - that's quite an odd one.

I've never had a plan for any of this: there was never a plan for, 'Right, I must get on the TV,' 'Right, I must have my own show,' 'Right, I must be a movie star.' I don't think like that. I haven't ever had that sort of interest.

To me the goal of comedy is to just laugh, which is a really high hearted thing, visceral connection and reaction.

I have always felt a comedy's story is undercut if you have a villain who is not really menacing.

Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.

My father was very athletic. He was a life-of-the-party kind of guy - walked into the room and there was a presence about him. He was a great storyteller, just a terrific sense of humor. Having said that, he never put all of those talents or abilities into some public arena. He was never interviewed, never on television. His family was everything.